
Class _i=Ll^.^ 



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?n^/t'')qo <^f^ -^ ' /"^^-^^ 



11 E Y I E W ^^, 



OF 



"A DISCOURSE OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF DANIEL WEBSTER, PREACHED AT 

THE MELODEON ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1S52, BY THEODORE PARICER, 

MINISTER OF THE T^VENTY-EIGHTH CONGREGATIONAL 

SOCIETY IN BOSTON.'' 



/ BY 



"JUNIUS AMERICANUS." 



"He that hidcth hatred with lyinjr lip?, and that uttert'tli slander, is a fool."' — rROVERiis, s. 18. 
'■ Answer a/ooi according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit."' — xxvi. 5. 

'• I'll prove it on his body." — Sqakespeare. 



BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE: 
JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, 

1853. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S53, by 

JAMES MUXROE AND COMPANY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



i 



c A :m n R I rt o E : 

AI.LtX AM> 1 AUNIIAM, rniXTERS, 



PREFACE. 



The writer of this Review has waited, expectantly, for what 
seemed to him a long time, to see the work which he has 
undertaken done by some other hand ; but no one seemed dis- 
posed to take hold of it. Some said the Discourse was not 
worth noticing ; others that it was unanswerable. Some even 
of Mr. Webster's friends shook their heads sadly, and said that 
much of it was too true ! The writer of this Review could no 
longer consent to see an " Ossa upon Pelion" of obloquy rest- 
ing on Daniel Webster's grave, and this Review is the result. 
Prepared as he was to find in this Discourse much more to con- 
demn than to praise, he had not an idea of one half of its 
iniquity. He knew there was abuse and misrepresentation, 
but did not know what malignity, meanness, prevarication, in- 
decency, bad metaphor, false logic, false statement, canting 
hypocrisy, and, comparing it with the first edition, what deli- 
berate contradiction, alteration, interpolation, and crafty sup- 
pression for a selfish purpose, there was extant in these one hun- 
dred and eight pages of a funeral discourse upon the greatest 
man of our time. We saw that it had lain on Webster's grave 
too long already ; that it had gone through an immense news- 
paper edition, and a revised pamphlet edition ; had been almost 
universally read, and, by those interested in its success, lavishly 
commended until there was danger that Daniel Webster mira- 
hile dictu would be taken by a great many iionest people at 



Theodore Parker's valuation ! Under these extraordinary cir- 
cumstances this Review has been undertaken, with the settled 
determination of a thorough expose^ and the design will be 
pursued with a will that knows no relenting. Charlatanry, 
chicanery, and effrontery have done their utmost to gain for 
this individual the public ear, and his pernicious influence 
being on the increase, it is high time to " abate him as a 
nuisance." 

To affect any squeamishncss in handling such a subject 
would be merely an affectation, and none will be affected. 

It is, we are aware, a dirty piece of work, but, like the sani- 
tary explorations, investigations, and expurgations necessary to 
the public health, it is not dishonorable, and we are willing 
to suffer in the nostril for the public good. 

It may be thought that the reviewer takes too much notice 
of the trifles of style : the reason for treating them so seriously 
is this ; these " straws " of metaphor " show which way the 
wind of doctrine blows" him, and give a knowledge of the 
meteorology of his passions. In this relation they assume 
an importance not intrinsically their own. 

The intention of the reviewer is not only to show up the 
Discourse and take away its power for evil, but to serve the 
author of it in the same way. To make a stethescopsis of his 
cardiac region, — to prove his probity with the probe of proba- 
bilities. To sound his depth, — ascertain his specific gravity, — 
approximate a fair market valuation of his " notions." Lay 
down on chart the shallows and quicksands of his theology, — 
ascertain his electrical condition, and see if he is not too posi- 
tive to 1)(^ a g(Ki(l conductor, — study his metallurgy and see 
how nnicli of him is gold, and how much brass ; assay the 
coinage of liis brain, and see how much of it is spurious; exa- 
mine the vaults of his mind, to see how much of the deposits 
is specie, and how much specious, ami also if Ihrrc has not 
been an overissue of paper; to ascertain the amount of his 



indebtedness to others, and inquire into the propriety of getting 
some Rev. Sidney Smith to inscribe jEre alieno on his fore- 
head. Finally, to calculate how much the public would pro- 
bably lose by taking him, and his "properties," at his own 
personal valuation. 

By an unheard of ferocity of attack upon a dead man's 
fame, in a funeral sermon, this man has put himself beyond 
the pale of conventional protection. He has shown no mercy 
to the dead, we shall show none to him living. 

He appears to combine the meanness of a Thersites, with 
the ferocity of a Richard, and the boastfulness of a FalstafF. 
Like the latter, he would stick his cowardly steel into a dead 
hero's thigh, swear he had fought him an hour by Shrewsbury 
clock, and boast of having slain him. Like Gloster, one feels 
tempted to say, in passing the sword of justice to " the joints 
and to the marrow," 

" Down, down to hell, and say I sent tbee tliitlier, I that have neither pity, 
love, nor fear ! " 

1=^ 



REVIEW 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY. 



In forming one's judgment upon a great man like 
Daniel "Webster, it is necessary to take a stand where we 
can look at his character and actions in a proper light — 
to retire from him to a proper distance, that we may 
look at his proportions from the right point of view. 

Of this, however, the writer of the Discourse under 
consideration is by nature and art incapable. 

To illustrate, w^e will relate a short story, not to be 
found in " Plutarch's Lives," or " Caesar's Commentaries." 

Once upon a time, there lived in Italy a Roman, named 
Minutius Specius Spectacus, who was bestridden by the 
idea that he was a great critic in matters of art, esjoe- 
cially statuary ; and by dint of giving his opinion on all 
possible occasions, with all possible audacity, he found a 
good many to believe in his pretensions. 

Strange as it may seem, he was near-sighted and squint- 
eyed, and his sight was obscured by a constant rheum, 
occasioned by his habit of gazing too closely and con- 
tinuously upon one point. 

Spectacus had heard of the great Colossus at Rhodes, 
and he determined to give the world the benefit of his 



judgment upon it; so lie set sail for that island, amid 
the cheers of his particular coterie, and expressions of 
mutual admiration that were very gratifying to all con- 
cerned. 

Arrived in sight of the object of the visit, the captain 
of the vessel proposed to cast anchor some ways out, as 
was customary with those who went to view this immense 
statue. 

There stood the mighty Colossus, between the limits 
of whose giant stride the commerce of a city passed and 
repassed with outspread sail, a noble object at the proper 
point of view. But our critic, Minutius Specius Specta- 
cus, at that distance, purblind as he was, could only see 
a tall and undefined something, which he could neither 
comprehend nor appreciate; so he must needs sail on, 
and land near by, where he could see a little better. 

Getting on shore, he went winking and blinking np to 
one of the statue's mighty feet. He could hardly tiptoe 
a horizontal glimpse across the massive instep; but he 
went peeping and peering and squinting about, with a 
most sagacious and cognizant expression. 

He put his finger here, and his thumb there. 

He was curious to know what it was made of 

He found fault because it was not polished. 

Finally, he took out a graduated rule, and proceeded 
to calculate the superficies of the toe-nails ; and lo I he 
found that there was disproportion between the great 
toe-nail and the little toe-nail ! 

This ascertained, he needed no more. A Phidias or a 
Praxiteles could not have shaken his faith in the idea 
that the thini]^ was a failure. " Thouuh he had ))een 
brayed in a mortar," yet would not that "foolishness have 
departed from hiui." 

He sailed out of the harbor, and out of si<dit of the 
Colossus, without once looking behind him ; and, having 



9 

arrived at home, in an assembly of his fellow quichmncs, 
he declared that he had made the Colossus an object of 
special study and accurate investigation, and that it was 
a complete failure; for that, although it looked large, 
and perhaps was large — people said it was — yet that 
there was a discrepancy in its proportions that spoiled 
the whole thing : that the great toe-nail was a quarter of 
an inch too small, and the little toe-nail was a sixteenth 
of an inch too large : " and you know, fellow citizens," 
concluded Mimdius Spccius JSpectacus, " that where a thing 
is so manifestly wrong at the veri/ tip end of the great toe, 
it must be wrong all the way up; and my conscience 
will not let me rest until I have burrowed underground, 
and upset this great monstrosity." 

But lo ! that very day the earth shook and trembled, 
and ere long it was noised abroad that an earthquake 
had overturned the Colossus. 

"Never mind," said Minutius Specius Spectacus, "I'll 
burrow under its ruins." And lo ! he is rooting to this 
day. 

Thus ends the story. 

In like manner with Minutius Specius Spectacus, there 
are some men that make manifest their own defective 
organization when they undertake to consider the char- 
acter of Daniel Webster, and to treat of the mighty 
themes with which his giant reason grappled. 



10 



CHAPTER II 



THE PROVOCATION. 



" Could he come near with his nails, 
He 'J set his ten commandments in your face." Siiakesfeake. 

The design of this chapter is to possess the reader at 
once with a distinct view of the unheard of indecency 
and malignity of the Discourse under consideration, and 
justify beyond question the reviewer's severity. On page 
22 he begins the attack ; and from that beginning to " the 
bitter end," eighty-six whole pages, he goes on in what 
appears to us such a strain of unfair statement, illogical 
inference, shallow judgment, lying assertion, and willul per- 
version, and distortion of what he cannot plausibly deny, 
as cannot be paralleled in the dog-fights of a party press 
campaign, much less in the literature of a profession that 
boasts of a Massillon, a Hall, a Tillotson, a Chalmers, and a 
ChanniufT. Let anv man read it, mark its contradictions — 
its self-evident fiilsifications — its entire devotion to- the 
malice prepense base purposes of its unscrupulous author, 
and then say if the reviewer has been half as severe as the 
case warrants. Why, there is not a crime, not an enor- 
mity, not a monstrosity of unheard of criminality, which 
this saintly " minislcr " does not accuse Mr. Webster of; and 
then, on page Id"), when exhausted malignity, feeble and 
out of breath, could do no more, in comes hypocrisy, to 
let it rest awhile, saying, '• I must be just. I must be 

tender, too ! " 

In the name of all that is decent, how could this man 
betray such inconsistency, and, like a little child with 



11 

his mouth crammed full of the speech obstructing evi- 
dence of his guilt, blubber, "I did not do it;" -with both 
hands full of gingerbread into the bargain ! 

Who believes him when he says he loved Daniel Web- 
ster ? 

We find no fault with fair statement, logical inference, 
consistent condemnation ; but when a man says now, I 
admire the man, then there is nothing to admire in him 

— now whines over his grave, the next moment spits on 
his epitaph, and in impotent rage kicks at his escutcheon, 
he outrages common feeling to that degree that the hon- 
est heart revolts, and we turn away in uncontrollable 
loathing from such apparent hypocrisy. 

Let the following precious extracts bear witness of the 
spirit of the Discourse under review. We cannot in con- 
science ask any- one to "read, mark, and inwardly digest," 

— all we venture to expect is that the reader will put 
the nauseous mess in a condition to be ejected with all 
convenient speed. 

" To accomplish a had imr pose he resorted to mean artificer 

" He used misrepresentationr 

" The malignit?/ of his conduct, as it was once said of a great 
apostate, ivas hugehj aggravated hj those rare ahilities of ivhich 
God had given him the use." 

" He threw over his own morality, his own religion, his 
OWN God." (He was an atheist then.) 

" Here teas the reason he tvanted to he Presidents 

" Think of Daniel Webster become the assassin of 
liberty in the capitol." 

" Think of him, full of the Old Testament, and dear Isaac 
Watts, scoffing at the higher laiv of God" (He accuses him 
of blasphemy.) 

" Benedict Arnold fell, but fell through, — so low that 
no man fjuotes him for a precedent. Aaron Burr is only 
a warning. Webster fell, and he lay there not less than 



12 

an archangel ruined, and enticed the nation in his fall. 
Shame on us ! — all tJtose three are of Xew England hlood!' (!) 
(Traitor.) 

« Daniel Webster kidnapped." (zV thief.) 

" The companions of his later years were chiefly low 
men with large animal appetites, servants of his hod/j's baser 
2Kirts{\) or tidewaiters of his ambition, — vulgar men in 
Boston, and New York, who bask in the habitations of 
cruelty, whereof the dark places of the earth are full, 
seeking to enslave their brother-men. These barnacles clave 
to the great man's unprotected ^^ar/^ (!) and hastened his 
decayri^.) (A debauchee.) 

"lie cared little for the poor; charity seldom invaded 
his open purse ; he trod down the poorest and most 
friendless of perishing men." 

" In later years his face was the visage of a tjTant." 

" He was indeed eminently selfish, (!) joining the instinc- 
tive egotism of passion with the self-conscious, voluntarg, deli- 
berate, calculating egotism of ambition. He borrowed money 
of rich young men — aye, and of poor ones — in the 
generosity of their youth, and never paid." 

" He neglected the public business." " No man, it was 
said, could get office under his administration, unless 
bathed in negro's blood." (!) (A murderer !) 

Then comes '• lack of ideas and honestv." 

" Fond of sensual luxury, — the victim of low appetites. 
Intensely proud." '' Private moncg often clove to hi^ hands,'' 
— "collected money and did not pay." "His later 
speeches smell of bribes." " No man living has done so much 
to debauch the conscience of tlie nation ; to debauch the press, the 
pulpit, the forum, and the bar ! " 

" He sinned against his own conscience, and he fell,'' — " he 
sold himself to the money j^ou'cr to do service against man- 
kind r (!) 

Now, in the name of all that is virtuous, what horrid 



13 ^ - 

monster in human shape, had this man reference to, iu 
the dchauchce, thief, rohhcr, murderer, and blaspheming atheist, 
described in these extracts ? 

Why Daniel Webster ! ! ! 

Is Theodore Parker " tender ? " In the Bible we find 
it written, " the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel ; " 
what then are the tender mercies of Theodore Parker, 
if the above is his idea of the " tenderness of woman's 
love." ■=' 

Now, either this man Parker believes what he has said 
above, or he does not. If he does believe it, he might as 
well tell of the soft affection he has for the ravening 
wolf, or the raging wild boar of the forest, as to ever 
mention such a word as " tenderness " in connection with 
such an inhuman, worse than wild beast monster, as he 
makes out of the man whom " children loved and clave 
to," Daniel Webster. 

" If he does not believe it," as before God I do not 
doubt, then is he doubly damned, as a foul-mouthed liar, 
and a black-hearted scoundrel, "who should be lashed 
naked through the world with a w^hip of scorpions," and 
run the gauntlet of God's creation in like manner, until 
he pitches headlong into that outer darkness in which is 
his proper portion, until he repents himself of his foul 
slander, and says, in the remorse of returning virtue, 

" O, would the deed were good, 



For now the devil that told me, — I did well 
Says, that this deed is chronicled in hell ! " 

The author of this review in connnon with hundreds 
of thousands of his countrymen, perused this Discourse 
as it was published in the " Commonwealth " newspaper, 
phonographically reported. In that form it had an im- 



* See page 2 of Discourse. 
9 



14 

mense circulation. About eighty thousand copies were sold. 
In the perusal of that copy we did not, however, go much 
further than the first two thirds, and from that perusal 
we had the impression that it was as fair as could be 
expected of its author. In pursuing our object of a full 
and searching review, we have taken pains to make a 
thorough comparison of the two editions, namely, the 
newspaper phonographic report, and the pamphlet edition, 
revised and corrected for the press by the author. In 
the preface to this last, he tells us that he has investi- 
gated anew, and that the pamphlet edition is the result ; 
so of course we expected to fmd additions, and perhaps 
alterations of mistakes of statement, if any such had oc- 
curred; but it was with great astonishment that we beheld 
the sjnrit and temper of the interpolations, and the character 
and design of the alterations. The two copies are almost 
Avord for word alike, with some chano-es in arrano-ement of 
topics, and the interpolations, e.rceptinr/ some very remark- 
able alterations, omissions, and substitutions, which we 
will point out. Yerily, a man Avho does not stick to the 
truth, should have a long memory and a careful eye to 
future consequences. Said a colored Avoman once to the 
reviewer, '• The truth will bear its own weight I *' It was 
a striking expression. Its converse must then be true ; 
"falsehood will fall with its own weiu:lit.'' What then 
shall be the fate of this Discourse ? Let us examine and 
see. 

The accuracy of the phonographic reporter of this ser- 
mon may be seen by comparing the two editions from 
page 1 to page 1-3, where end the general and prelimi- 
nary remarks, and where the personal ])ortion commences. 
Wo find a good deal interpolated in the iirst brief sketch 
of Webster's life, but nothing of material consequence 
until, upon the 22d and 2od pages, we find that the 
entire attack on Mr. Webster's fame as a constitutional 



15 

law3''er, is an interpolation. This we treat of in its 
proper place, and for the present let it pass. The iiolitical 
bearing of this interpolated attack cannot be mistaken. 
We intend to show that it is the deliberate intention of 
the anthor to disparage Mr. Webster's abilities as much 
as he can, that he may drag the great man down as near 
as possible to his own level, and fiimiliarize his readers 
with the idea that Webster was overrated. 

On page 18 we observe that the "cider-barrel" figure 
of speech, which is treated of in its proper place in the 
review, is added to and hcauiificd. 

On page 28, from "In November," etc., to page 38, 
ending with " Mason and Shaw of Massachusetts," is an 
interpolation. About ten pages, the most of it relating to 
Federalism, is thus added. This is treated of in another 
portion of the review. 

It is proper in this place to observe, that, although the 
sermon in pamphlet thus differs from the sermon as de- 
livered, yet it is put out under the title of "A Discourse 
occasioned by the Death of Daniel Webster, preached at 
the Melodeon=-= on Sunday, October 31st, 1852;" and 
being thus entitled, and being also "the sober second 
thouo'ht" of the author, it is treated as if it were all then 
written and delivered. He has fathered and legitimated 
the whole brood, and of course must be responsible for 
them, when all these "curses, like chickens," are sent 
" home to roost." 

Still, in order that the reader may see the deliberate ani- 
mus of the performance, we give the alterations, etc. 

On the 3 9 til page we find the following sneer inter- 
polated in pursuance of the design of systematic deprecia- 
tion. AVe quote, "To judge from the record, Mr. Webster 
found abler heads than his own in that Convention. lu- 

* The Twenty-Eighth Society now occupy tlic New Music HalL 



/ 



16 

deed, it would heave been surprising if a ^oung man, only 
eight and thirty years of age, should surpass the 'assem- 
bled -svisdom of the State.' " 

According to the statement in the Discourse, that he 
was ten years old when Webster, in 1820, spoke at Ply- 
mouth, Mr. Parker is now not far from forty-three, — 
about five years older than the "young man" at whom 
he sneers. 

Whether he himself is old or 3'oung, j^roperly speak- 
ing, it is quite plain that he has outgrown '•' the modesty 
of youth," for he claims to " surpass the assembled and 
collective wisdom," not only '•' of the State," but of the 
nation, both in politics and religion. We are inclined to 
think, however, that he is rather more of a "juvenile" 
than " a Juvcnair 

His opinions would not spoil in keeping a while longer 
— in fact they are green — thc}^ need to ripen. lie 
should let the fruit remain on the tree lomxer. clainiino- 
as he does that his tree alone brino^s forth fruit fit to eat. 
Perhaps, however, if we pursue the analogy, we shall 
undei-stand the whole matter. Ilis 2)resent published 
opinions are, probably, part of them, mere '-windfalls," 
shaken violently off by the tempest of controversy, and 
green, of course, — calculated to give, in Fanny Fern's 
expressive language, "a pain under the apron;" and part 
of them have fallen off because of the wonn in them. 

We will next introduce two extracts, one from the 
newspaper edition, and the other from the pamphlet edi- 
tion. The italics are the re\ie\vcr's. 

From the newspaper. From the pamphlet. 

"In 1828 he votofl for tlio 'Mil of "In 1828 be voted for the bill of 

abominations,' as the tarilf was ealled ; abominations, as that tarill' was called, 

not because he was in favor of the whieh levied ' thirty-two millions of 

measure, but as the least of sundrv dutirs on sixty-Jbur millions of ini- 

cvils. Afterwards, he became a strong ports,' not because he was in favor of 



17 



advocate for a high protective tariff. 
Here he has been blamed for his change 
of opinion. It .seems to me Ins ^first. 
opinion was right, and Iiis last opinion 
wrong., — that he never answered his 
first great speech ; but it seems to me that 
he teas honest in the change. 

" In 181G and 1824, the South wanted 
a protective taritT; the Xorth hated it. 
It was Mr. Calhoun who introduced 
the measure first. Calhoun, at that 
time, was in fiivor of an United States 
protective tarllf. There was, it seems 
to me, a good and sufficient reason to 
Mr. Webster for this change; but he 
had other fluctuations on this matter, 
which, I grieve to say, do not seem 
capable of an explanation quite so hon- 
orable." 



the measure, but as the least of two 
evils. 



"In 181 G, the South wanted a pro* 
tective tariff; the commercial North 
hated it. It was Mr. Calhoun who in- 
troduced the measure first. « * * 

" After the system of protection got 
footing, the Northern capitalists set 
about manufacturing in good earnest, 
and then Mr. Webster became the ad- 
vocate of a high tariff of protective du' 
ties. He has been blamed for his 
change of opinion 5 but to him it was an 
easy change. He was not a scientijic 
legislator: he had no great and compre- 
hcnsice ideas of that part of legislation 
ichich belongs to political economy. He 
looked only at the fleeting interest of his 
constituents, and took their transient 
opinions of the hour for his norm of 
conduct. As these altered, ?iis own views 
also changed. Sometimes the change 
teas a revolution. It seems to me his 
first opinion was right, and his last a 
fatal mistake ; that he never answered 
his first great speech of 1824. But it 
seems to me that he was honest in the 
change ; for he only looked at the pecu' 
niary interest of his employers, and took 
their opinions for his guide. But he 
had other fluctuations on this matter of 
the tariff, which do not seem capable 
of so honorable an explanation." 



It is hoped that the honest reader ^vill compare these 
two columns of extracts carefully with each other. In 
the first he says, in so many wordi^, " but it seems to me 
that he was honest in the change." There it stands 
alone, unqualified; but how is it in the second? Ob- 



18 

serve the interpolations beginning at " Here be bas been 
blamed," etc. Tbe first is an absolute, unqualified expres- 
sion ; tbe last contains a labored effort to neutralize tbe 
Avbole of an expression be did not dare to expunge. 

Now, mark tbe precise terms of tbe following, found 
also in " tbe newspaper." '' Tbere was, it seems to me, a 
good and sufficient reason to ^Ir. Webster for tbis cbange." 
Tbis is direct. On tbe 31st of October, 1852, Mr. Parker 
tbouubt tbat ]\lr. "Webster was ahsohdclu honest in bis 
cbange as to tbe tariff. In tbe panipblet edition be 
qualifies tbat expression Ijy additions wbicb give tbe im- 
pression tbat be was not bonest, but did it to please bis 
constituents. Are we unfair in so cbarging ]Mr. Parker ? 
Tbere are tbe extracts. Let any one read tbe two and 
see for bimself It will be seen tbat in tbe pampblet be 
omits, '• There was, it seems to me, a good and sufficient 
reason to Mr. Webster for tbis cbange." " Good and suffi- 
cient" for wbat ? wby, to make bim '' honest'' in tbe matter. 

Are tbese alterations, taking tbem in spirit and in let- 
ter, compatible witb moral honesty of purpose? 

We will say notbing about any "tenderness'' towards 
Mr. Parker. AVe mean to be just, but be cannot expect 
mercy. It is our deliberate and carefully weigbed opin- 
ion, tbat be is inteniiomdlg dishonest in tbe matter above ; 
and we cbarge bim witb it before men and betbre God. 

From the pamphlet. From the newspaper. 

" Mr. Clav was certainly a man of " Mr. (lav was certainly a jrroat man, 
very larjie int^'llcct, ■wise, aiul .sul)tle, wise, ami subtle, and far-sighted. [/ 
and far-sighted. IJiit in 1833, he intro- wish I thought he was as honest as Cal- 
dueed his Campromise nicasnre, to hoiin, or eouhl be persuaded that he 
avoid the necessity of enforcing the was as i/mcrous as Webster;] but in 
opinions of Mr. Webster." lf<:]3 Mr. Clay could not vote for the 

force bill which AVcbstor so proudly 
defended against the Soutli Carolinian 
idea. Mr. Clay would not vote against 
it — he avoitled the (piestion : the air of 
the Senate was so bad he could not stav." 



19 

What does the candid reader think of the above ? Ob- 
serve the tenor of that part whose place is a perfect hknk 
in the pamphlet edition. Why was it left out ? was it or 
not, we leave it to the reader, left out because in it he 
calls Mr. Webster '■^generous?'' 

Observe the alteration and condensation of the last 
part. You see he has squeezed out all the praise of Mr. 
Webster there was in it; — '•^proudly defended"' is not 
there. Why not ? The whole thing tells its own tale, as 
will the cheek of Mr. Parker, when he peruses for the 
first time the exposure of this "baser part"--= of lus doings. 
But this is nothing to what is to come. In popular phrase, 
" it opens rich." 



From the newspaper. 

" While Secretary of State, he per- 
formed the great act of his public life 
— the one deed on which his ftimc as 
a political oflicer icill settle down and 
rest — the Ashburton Treaty, in 1842. 
The matter was difficult ; the claims 
intricate. There were four parties to 
pacify — England, the United States, 
Massachusetts, and Maine ; nay, it is 
whispered thai there icas a fifth partij — 
the government at the time. The diffi- 
culty was almost sixty years old. ^Many 
political doctors had laid their hands on 
the immedicable wound which only 
smarted sorer under their touch. The 
British government sent an honor- 
able representative, and America an 
honorable Secretary ; the two trust- 
worthy men settled the difficulty, hon- 
estly, fairly, and above board; I am not 
niyyard of my praise, hwi I think this 
the one great deed of ^Ir. Webster. 
Perhaps no other man could have done 



From the pamphlet. 

" While Secretary of State, he per- 
formed the great act of his public hfe, — 
the one deed on which his reputation as 
a political administrator seems to settle 
down and rest. He negotiated the 
Treaty of Washington, in 1842. The 
matter was difficult, the claims intricate. 
There were four parties to pacify — 
England, the United States, ^Massachu- 
setts, and Maine. The difficulty was 
almost sixty years old. ^Many political 
doctors had laid their hands on the 
immedicable wound which only smarted 
sorer under their touch. The British 
Government sent over a minister to 
negotiate a treaty with the American 
Secretary. The two eminent states- 
men settled the diOiculty. It has been 
said that no other man in America 
could have done so well, and drawn 
the thunder out of the gathered cloud. 
Perhaps I am no judge of that ; yet I 
do not see why any sensible and no^KST 



* See extract from Discourse. 



20 

so well, and drawn the tliunder out of man could not have done the worlc, 
the gathered cloud. I am no judge of * * * Mr. "Webster succeeded in 
that." negotiating because he gave up more 

American territory than any one would 

yield before." (!) 

What a .striking difference between these two estimates 
of the character of one and the same transaction. In 
" the newspaper " he says Mr. Webster's fame ?/•/// settle 
down, etc., and in the pamphlet he says, seems to settle 
down and rest. It will be in vain to charsje that differ- 
ence upon the phonographic reporter. Seems and will 
are not at all alike in sound, and phonography goes 
by sounds. In addition to that the whole tenor of 
" the newspaper " estimate accords with the absolute as- 
sertion, for he says in so many words, " / am not nig- 
gard of mg ^j;y«5c, lut I ildnk this the one great deed of Jfr. 
Weyterr 

But it is not necessary to dwell npon this. The record 
speaks for itself Read it — read it in the original docu- 
ments, do not trust to this review ; read it as his own 
jH'inter has it. Read the /chote account. Observe his skill 
in the use of "middle terms," as he labors in the hopeless 
task of puttying his inconsistencies together. Observe 
how differcntlv the negotiators are alluded to in the two 
versions. See where he puts in "perhaps," and mark 
what follows. 

Mr. Parker has manaii'cd this matter bunglinglv. lie 
has made a regular bull, upon one of Avhose horns he is 
sure to suffer. This is his dilemma. lie is either insin- 
cere, or else in the first edition he - made a fatal mistake." 
The two estimates of the same action are direct contra- 
dictions. "We would, for the sake of the public, preserve 
a semblance of respect for Mr. Parker, but does not the 
question conio up irresistibly, in the brevity of common 
parlance, " Which is he, knave or fool ?" What right had 



21 

he to sai/ amj tlihuj on the 31st of October, when, if his 
last statement is correct, he hicw so little ? 

Here is another alteration, the motives of which cannot 
be mistaken. 

From the neia^paper. From the pamphlet. 

" He had just scattered the thunder " It ivas thought that he had just scat- 
■which impended over the nation : the tered the thunder which impended 
sullen cloud still hung over his own over the nation : a sullen cloud still 
head." hung over his own expectations of the 

Presidency." 

Let the above tell its own tale. The attention of the 
reader is called to the interpolations enumerated below. 
Observe the general tendency of them. '• Discourse," 
page 22, from " Look at the," etc., to the bottom of page 
23. Page 28, from " In November," to page 38, "of Mas- 
sachusetts." Read the whole of the tariff matter, and 
com2Dare"the newspaper" and the "pamphlet" on that 
subject. Read the "Treaty" matter in both. 

Compare the two editions where he comes to speak of 
the slavery question. Observe the subtlety with which 
he endeavors all along to be-little the great man, and 
mark what bearing the alterations and interpolations 
have on that subject. See how he alters and leaves out 
epithets honorable to Mr. Webster, as in the treaty mat- 
ter, and in other places ; leaving out entirely in the 
pamphlet " as generous as Webster," "honorable secretary," 
" trustworthy men," "honestly, fairly, and above-board," 
" his great heart — it was always a great heart — no down- 
fall could make it little," all these left out. Some ways 
further on, in " the newspaper." several coknnns from 
his account of the treaty matter we find tlie following, 
which is left out of the pamphlet: "The treaty signed 
at Washington, in 1842, he managed well with all its in- 
tricacies." The following are also left out or altered in 



22 

pursuance of his design. '■ Commonly "Webster was 

honest in his oratory ; open, Euf/Iish, and not YanJcee. 

* * '•• '•' '=■• '■'' It was the tactics of a great and Jioncst- 
mindccl man^ 

How do our New England people relish the above ? 
"open, English, not Yankee!" "honest," "open," are Eng- 
lish ; but covert and dishonest he calls Yankee. How is it 
with this YanJcee preacher ? Is he really then a sjjccunoi 
of us Yankees ? Honesty forbid ! 

The above is not in the pamphlet. It slipped out una- 
wares, and is suppressed for a purpose. Does the truth 
require all this trickery in its advocates ? Cannot the 
hiirher law of Mr. Parker's conscience be enforced with- 
out such trickishness as the perversions and omissions 
recorded above ? xVlas for the higher law, if it is to be 
interpreted by a mind of so crooked an order as his ap- 
pears to be. 

Further on in the newspaper, we find the following 
fling at Mr. Clay : — 

"Henry Clay labored to defeat him at Baltimore last 
June. This was not generous in Mr. Clay, for in '41 
Webster had toiled earnestly for that ' Hero of the 
West,' toiled for his rival, toiled against hope. But Mr. 
Clay bore him a grudge, and on his death-bed waited for 
the consolation of his more generous rival's fiill, saiv it, teas 
glad, and died content T (!) 

Is the above a decent thing to put into a funeral dis- 
course ? This also is not in the pamphlet. The news- 
paper edition reached, as we are credibly informed, the 
extraordinary circulation of eight g thousand : — it was in 
that. 

But we tire of this scaveno-crie, and will end this de- 
partment of it by the following, which is in the news- 
paper, but not in the pamphlet. 



rice." 



23 

" Yet, in his generous nature, there was no iainl of ava- 

er 

It was an afterthought to deny him generodly. 



CHAPTER III. 

HIS EXORDIUM. 

" In this man's scale is nothing but himself, 
And some few vanities that make him light." — Suakespeake. 

" I CAN only say, I have done what I coukl," says Mr. 
Parker in his preface ; and one can scarcely go through 
with this " Discourse," as he is pleased to term it, without 
the full conviction that he has done what he could. He 
has "left no stone unturned" in his own heart and brain; 
and out from under each he has dislodged the serpent 
coiled there, to hiss and strike at Mr. Webster's reputation. 

He opens the Discourse with an allusion to "Bossuet, 
the eagle of eloquence." 

He himself, in his foul-mouthed groping in the entrails 
of the dead, reminds one irresistibly of an obscene turkey 
buzzard, gobbling greedily at the bod}^ of a lion, with 
beak and claws that never dared to touch him living. 

"Was there ever such a vile, unscrupulous, unmanly, 
and dastardly attack as this preacher is guilty of, and 
that, too, under the garb of reverence and affection for the 
object of it? 

At the outset this crocodile tear-spiller has the eifron- 
tery to say : — 

" Of all my public trials, this is my most trying day ! 



;■ 



24 

Give me 3'our sj'mpatliies, my friends; remember the 
difficulties of my position — its delicacy too." (I) 

One "would suppose, after this touching exordium, that, 
like Shem and Japhot, he -svould liave stepped backward, 
with the mantle of charity, to cover, even from his own eyes, 
the frailties of one he professed to venerate, and not like 
Ham have shown him up to public scorn and derision. 
But the curse of Ham will cling to him. No one ever 
dared to attack the lion living, and survived the onset. 
" One shake, one roar," and all was over. We shall see, 
in the after career of this discourser, whether the pro- 
verb will or will not prove true, "better is a live dog 
than a dead lion." 

The " dcUcacf/ of his 2'>osition ! " aye, and his delicate be- 
havior in it! We'll not forget either of them — well 
take care that they shall be remembered. 

" I am no party man," he remarks very naively, " you 
know that I am not." He should have said, I am a •• no- 
party" man, which is the most bigoted kind of a- party 
man. 

A little further on he says, "It is unjust to be ungener- 
ous, either in praise or blame." Really? Is it for the 
information of the public that this important assertion is 
hazarded? AVliat will the public say of the justice of the 
author of the Discourse after reading its heaps on heaps 
of Ijlame ? blame of all possible kinds, expressed in all 
possible ways. Blame by innuendo, by insinuation, by 
im])liration, l)y imputation, by accusation, by crimination. 
]j]auie of carc'li'ssncss. imprudence, improvidence, dis- 
honesty in speech, purpose, money : of malignity, re- 
venge, tyranny, l)igotry. impurity, etc. etc.. to an amount 
which, if it Nvere all put together, so that he could see it 
at one glance, would bring the blush of shame upon the 
cheek of Theodore Parker himself, even if the tell-tale 
blood were compelled to anastomose the milHon of dis- 



25 

eevered capilLaries tlirougli the liarcl cicatrice of his seared 
conscience on the long forgotten way to the brazen face. 

Verily, ^' it is unjust to be ungenerous!" 

" Most of 3^ou," continues ho to his hearers, " are old 
enousfh to know that a^ood and evil are both to be ex- 
pected of each man. I hope," this sanguine preacher 
goes on to say, '' you are all wise enough to discriminate 
between right and wrong." It is much to be doubted if 
those who sit lomj^ under such sermons as the one under 
notice will, for any great length of time, retain that 
power of discriminating. False reasoning, combined with 
unfair and untrue statement, illustrated by bad metaphor, 
must in time injure the mental and moral perceptions. 

He again says, " give me your sympathies." For the 
honor of human nature, it is to be hoped he did not obtain 
"what he asked, even from the great majority of those 
■whom curiosity and love of novelty had drawn in to wit- 
ness this carrion cucharist. 

As for those who already sympathized, they needed 
no pressing. Their ears were itching so violently that, 
at every harsh sentiment and savage accusation that 
scratched their tympanum, they all cried out, internally, 
"God bless" this tlieoloi!;ical "Duke of Arirvle;" and so 
held up their ears to be scratched again to the end of the 
chapter. 

They had all of them made up their faggot of opin- 
ions, and not a soul of them, the preacher included, 
would ever think of taking one out to examine it, for fear 
of loosenino; the bundle. 

But the climax of this man's loathsome hypocrisj^ is 
yet to come. The reader has of course perused the Dis- 
course, and knows with what it is fdled — what is the 
staple article in its composition. Then judge what sort 
of a man he is who, on the second page of a Discourse 
made up of such material, can coolly say, "This 1 am 

3 



2G 

sure of, — I shall be as tender in mj judgment as a 
woman's love ; I will try and be as fair as the justice of a 
man."(!) 

Just Heaven ! how could even that man, istc vir, have 
had the foolhardy assurance to let such a sentence as that 
go out to the world in ineffaccaljle print, with such a 
damning proof of its ftilsehood, and his own baseness at 
the heels of it ? " Qiicm Dcus vuU iKrderc ! " 

The fact is, there seems to be no truth at all in this 
man. He put that in because in and by itself it is beau- 
tiful ; and if he had followed it up with "tenderness" 
and "justice," it would have remained "a thing of 
beauty" that would have been in his reader's mind "a 
joy forever;" but as it is, it shows like the rose in the 
cheek of an abominable harlot, breeding disgust continu- 
ally. That man would sacrifice the holiest truth that 
ever emanated from the Divine heart for an affectation, 
a miserable affectation ! Let him recall to mind, and hy 
to heart, and reduce to practice, a sentiment he nttered 
only six lines before, " Only the truth is beautiful in 
speech." 

It is evident that Theodore Parker had anticipated the 
occasion of this Discourse — had considered its topics all 
over — had nui^ed its sentiments in his heart, and made 
swaddling clothes of words for them in his brain, while 
Daniel Webster lay upon bis couch of sickness. It was 
to be his biggest gun he would bring out, and his heaviest 
shot was to be fired. When the time came, he was ready 
loaded, primed, and cocked. We can easily appreciate 
the "feeling sense" he had of his "present opportunities," 
when we find him divulging his exultation at the god- 
send of n great subject in the following terms: "Such a 
day as this will never come again to you and me. There 
is no Daniel Webster loft to die, and Nature will not 
soon give us another such as he." 



27 

No doubt of it. The weeping hyena would never 
have another grave hke this to dig into and desecrate, so 
he must needs go at it " tooth and nail." 

To end this chapter as it was begun, by a quotation. 

" Seems he a clove ? his feathers are but borrowed ; 
For he' s disposed as the hateful raven." 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIS INTRODUCTION. 

" He apprehends a world of figures here. 
But not the form of what he should attend." Shakespeare. 

Having accomplished his exordium to his evident satis- 
faction, Mr. Parker opens his preliminary observations by 
a metaphor that would be good if it were true. 

The evident looseness and slipshodity of his style, an- 
noying as it is to a reader who is at all particular in such 
matters, would have been left unnoticed in this review, if 
he had not informed us in his preface that he had taken 
pains to revise the Discourse, and so, as we may fairly 
infer, has given it deliberately to the Avorld and the crilic, 
as a production its author considered worthy of himself, 
the subject, and the occasion. This being the case, of 
course he will expect no quarter. At any rate, he will 
find the reviewer to be, as Walter Scott said, '•' one of the 
Black Hussars of literature, that neither give nor take 
quarter." 

Not to detain the reader from the main subject of this 
chapter, we quote from the Discourse. 



28 

" A great man is the blossom of the world ; the individ- 
ual and prophetic flower, parent of seeds that will be 
men." 

The above sounds very oracular, vcrij. 

So a great man is all for show, and not for ubc. — he is 
a Uossom, is he ? Botany forbid I The '• prophetic flower," 
prophesying of what ? '•' Parent of seeds that will be 
men," — prophesying of '' seeds ? " But unless that flower 
matures into some sort of a fruit, its chance of a seedy 
progeny is very small. Is it not so ? 

It is not true that the great man is the blossom of the 
world ; — he is rather "' the crowning fruit of an era." In 
the fruit stage, the " seeds " are matured. "What is the 
destiny of the individual blossom ? It is to become an 
individual fruit. 

" This," continues the preacher, '• is the greatest work 
of God; (this Mjlossom!') far transcending earth and 
moon, and sun, and all the material magnificence of the 
universe. It (the blossom) is ^a little lower than the 
angels,' and, like the aloe tree, it (the blossom) blooms 
but once an age." 

"Ye gods, and little fishes!" There is a figure, or 
rather a concatenation of figures. Hereafter, when our 
professors of rhetoric wish to illustrate, by an unmistak- 
able instance, the subject of mixed metaphors, the}" will 
only have to refer the student to ^'Theodore Parker's Dis- 
course," etc., top of the third page; and there they will find 
such an instance. The}' will there be taught that an 
apple blossom is greater and more perfect than an apple ; 
that the great man blossom is the greatest work of God ! — 
greater than the great man fruit ! that this blossom blooms 
like the aloe tree ! 

But he says, '* the great man is the blossom of tlie 
U'orhir — that the world is by comparison a tree or shrub 
that blossoms like the aloe, onlv once in a centurv. and the 




29 



product ontTat blossoming is a great man ! A great blow 
out, certainl}^ 

But the world is not like the aloe that blooms but once 
an age. It blossoms evermore, continuously, with myriads 
of lovely inflmts, whicli day by day unfold until they drop 
off the white petals of negative innocence, and year by 
year, as fruits, they grow and ripen for eternity ; and once 
an age there grows a great " apple of gold," which pos- 
terity put in the " silver pictures " of history for the ben- 
efit of coming ages. 

Such a fruit was Daniel AYebster, the generous wine of 
whose great mind shall revive, and exhilarate, and nour- 
ish the nations, long after this generation shall have ceased 
to scowl at the acrid verjuice of this sermonizer. 

We have taken a long time to pull this flower of rhet- 
oric in pieces. In fact, it was rather awkward to take 
hold of, because of its many salient incongruities. 

One would have thouGfht that common observation 
would have taught him that the fruit is the end or pur- 
pose of the productive process, as the apple, the nut, and 
the wheat, which is itself a seed and fruit alike. But the 
secret of the whole trouble lies in the fact that he is fond 
of the sJiowif, and must needs incumber his metaphor by 
lugging in that much abused posy, the aloe. His rhet- 
oric inevitably provokes the epithet " sophomorical." 

But we pass on. Some ways down the page, wo come 
to the following observation : " Even Nicholas of Russia 
is only tall, not great." As an offset to this, we will merely 
remark that even the sea serpent, of Naliant, is only long, 
not thick ! 

On page fourth peeps out the "one idea" which under- 
lies the whole of this man's philosophy. It appears in these 
three words, '• the Eternal right," wliich shibboleth of this 
noparty man's party is, being by that party interpreted, 
" the freedom of the negro ; " but which, reasoning ab- 

3* 



30 

stractly, might just as well be rendered, '- the freedom of 
malefactors, lunatics, infants, idiots, and all persons what- 
soever, whether their own trood, the o:ood of the family, 
the good of society, the good of a nation, the good of the 
whole world requires them to Iju kept in restraint for the 
present, or not. 

It is easy to show what this "eternal right" is, however. 

It is, "to act from the ruling motive of love to God 
and his creatures," and this motive no more rules Theo- 
dore Parker, to judge by his discourses, which are "full of 
malice and all uncharitaljleness," than it does the veriest 
" Legree " that ever blasphemed human nature on a cot- 
ton plantation. The fact is, that the reviewer, even in 
ihis apparently cruel castigation, is only carrying out his 
own ideas of universal good will, and acting up to the 
proverb, " a whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a 
rod for the fool's back." 

Strange as it may appear to a man of one idea, it 
is confidently claimed that all the love of God and his 
creatures does not reside in I, my, me, Theodore Parker, 
the ipse dixitizer of fallacious propositions, vile accusa- 
tions, and inapt similes. 

Those who have read the production herein under 
review, or even our extracts, will justify severity in the 
case ; for a thing so brimming full of evidence, that its 
author is in the " gall of bitterness, and the bond of ini- 
quity," does not out-black the blackness of the ink which 
it perverts ; and Thegdore Parker is so encased like an 
oyster in his shell of self-conceit, that nothing 1)ut the 
point of an unscrupulous knife Avill stand a chance of 
•02:)ening liim to tlic IJLi'ht of roniiuon decency. AVe have 
undertaken this task, and we are bound to pry open the 
bivalves if the knife does not break, so " by the grace of 
God," the reader's interest in common justice, and our 



J 

31 

own desire to do good in our day and generation, lie shall 
not be " spared for his crying." 

On page sixth, he says, "Little boys in the country 
working against time, with stints to do, long for the pass- 
ing by of some tall brother, who in a few minutes shall 
achieve what the smaller boy took hours to do. And we 
are all of us but little boys, looking for some great bro- 
ther to come and help us end our tasks." 

God has so constituted us that we cannot permanently 
profit by any such help in our " stints." The muscles of 
the arm will never grow and harden by the exercise of a 
proxy. The only true philosophy of life is to do each one 
his own work, every one in his proper sphere. He who has 
the great arm let him strike the heavy blow ; he who has 
the nimble foot let him run the swift race ; he who has the 
great head let him think the great thought. Let the great 
brother take care of the little brother, and let the little 
brother, whether an individual, or a race, be content to 
be taken care of until he too becomes a big brother. 
But by all means let no little brother " let his angry pas- 
sions rise," because all little brothers must be kept under 
guardianship until they can take care of themselves, and 
make upward and onward progress, instead of falling 
backward into moral debasement and physical imbecility. 
And especially let not the high-strung little brother of 
one family meddle with the domestic concerns of another 
family, and because some little brothers get whipped, 
deny the propriety of keeping the little brothers under 
guardianship. And most especially of all, let not that 
high-strung little brother abuse the biggest brother of 
us all, because being great and tall, he saw things 
which the little brother could not see without being 
boosted up on the great brother's mighty shoulder. 

Another quotation. "But it is not quite so easy to 



32 



recognize the greatest kind of greatness. A Xootka 
Sound Indian woukl not see much in Leibnitz. Newton, 
Socrates, or Dante ; and if a great man were to come as 
much before us as we are before the Xootka-Sounders, 
what shoukl we say of him ? Why, the worst names we 
coukl devise, — infidel, atheist, bkisphemer, h3-pocrite. 
Perhaps we shoukl dig up the old cross, and make a new 
martyr of the man posterity will worship as a deity." 

The above is very easy of interpretation. Those who 
have been familiar with the public performances of the 
author of the Discourse will very readily understand who 
it is that, having been long called infidel, hypocrite, etc., 
is now in fear of martyrdom, and expects at some future 
day, " Heaven save the mark ! " the honors of apotheosis ! 
This man has now for these ten 3-ears been taking his 
expected posthumous glory by anticipation, in regular 
weekly instalments, as a part of his stipend from the 
" Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society in Boston,"' and 
of late with freesoil-party-press incense thrown in. Tic 
in advance of the age ! He is merely befuddled with 
what he thinks to be intelligence " in advance of the 
mails." Let him take to heart the lesson of the poet, 

" A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ; 
Drink deep, or ta^te not the Pierian spring. 
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain. 
But drinking largely sobers us again !" 

As to difo-ing up the old cross of even the humblest 
martyr, to crucify this man upon, it would l)e a desecra- 
tion. The only cross which eomes to mind as at all ap- 
propriate to his case, is the one which bore the malefactor 
that railed upon our Saviour ; but even that would be 
disfn-aced l)y it, lor the malefactor was made a railer by 
suflering, but this num by an overweening vanity. 

We come now to another rich specimen of rhetorical 



33 



logic. Says the sententious sermonlzer, " Any man can 
measure a walking-stick, — so many liantls long, and so 
many nails beside ; but it takes a mountain intellect to 
measure the Andes and Altai." A decent illustration if 
true, but lacking the salt of truth ; although it may an- 
swer for off-hand preaching, it Avon't bear keeping 
between covers, and should not have been hazarded in 
printer's ink. 

A walking-stick and a mountain are measured on pre- 
cisely the same mathematical principles, and the intellect 
that can get at the height, thickness, or solid contents of 
a walking-stick, with its minute irregularities of carved 
head, tassel-hole, and tapering ferule, not to speak of a 
Niagara hickory stick, with its hooked top and numerous 
nodes, can get at the same particulars in respect to a 
mountain, give him iime enough : the principle is the 
same, and so this w^alking-stick simile must go along with 
the "blossom." 

In the hope that Mr. Parker may be persuaded to 
amend his style, we insert the following specimens, in 
which Parker and Shakespeare may be compared in the 
matter of manner and originality. 

" Sullenly the full moon at morning pales her ineffectual light before the ris- 
ing day." 

" See, see, king Richard doth himself appear, 
As doth the blushing discontented sun, 
From out the fiery portal of the east ; 
"When he perceives the envious clouds are bent, 
To dim his glory and to stain the track 
Of his bright passage to the Occident." 

Is it possible that the preacher leaves out quotation 
marks on purpose ? " Pales her ineffectual fires" is very 
like an old acquaintance, and '■ leads to bewilder and daz- 
zles to blind/ M'hich we find a little further on in the 
Discourse, has a singularly familiar sound to those who 



34 

learned to read in Murray's English Reader. The omis- 
sion of tlie proper marks is unfortunate to say the least. 

Again a quotation. " It is a false great man often gets 
possession of the pulpit, with his lesson for to-day, which 
is no lesson." 

The application of the above is so obvious, that one 
cannot claim any merit in calling attention to it. When 
a coat is so apparent a fit to a back that is tiniqne and 
outre in its deformities, it need not be tried on to find out 
for whom it is adapted. 

Here comes another mess of mixed metaphor, which 
might be pardonable in the heat of extemporizing, but 
what shall Ave say of it as a deliberate part and parcel of 
a much lauded discourse upon the death of Daniel Web- 
ster, revised and corrected for the press by the author ? 

"Dull Mr. Jingle urges along his restive, hard-mouthed 
donkey, besmouched with mire and wealed with many a 
stripe, amid the laughter of the boys ; while, by his proper 
motion, swanlike Milton flies before the faces of mankind, 
which are new-lit with admiration at the poet's rising 
flight, his garlands and his singing robes about him, till 
the aspiring glory transcends the sight, yet leaves its track 
of beauty trailed across the sky." 

Not exactly "with the tenderness of woman's love," but 
certainly with the justice of a lover of good rhetoric, we 
would suggest that the discourser should not let his great 
thoughts so run away with him, but get discretion to 
assist him to " hold them in and let them trot." First 
he gives us Mr. Jingle, in appropriate and laughable 
style. So fir, good ; he is on terra lirma witli his meta- 
phor, and seems (^uite at liome with the donkey and the 
muddy road ; but when he rises into the sky, he cuts a 
curious " figure." 

If it was Jolni Milton's -proper motion" to lly like a 
swan, all that can be said is that he flew very awkwardly, 



35 

and showed a very homely pair of black legs ! The swan 
is beautiful and graceful when floating on the surface of 
the stream, but a goose can beat him in flying all hollow. 
When Theodore gets through botany, and has a sufficient 
acquaintance with " blossoms," a course of natural history 
would not hurt his rhetoric. 

The " figure " shows the marks of a good deal of car- 
pentering, and all because he would persist in scaring up 
the swan from the stream, where she was floating so buo}^- 
antly, to trail her awkward paddles and penfeathers 
through the atmosphere. 

It is quite evident that when he started out the " don- 
key," he had his eye on another quadruped, the winged 
courser, Pegasus, whom the muses, from time immemorial, 
have kept at livery for the use of aspiring mortals when 
they " had a desire to rise higher," and career through 
cloudland to hexametric, pentametric, and other thorough- 
paced measures. But the swan was pressed into the ser- 
vice instead, and made to perform in the aerial hippo- 
drome of this rhetorical Franconi. 

It is very plain that, having thus sent Milton out of 
sight, the preacher thought he had "done about enough 
for glor}''," in this particular line, for he immediately takes 
a new tack. 

On pages ninth and tenth, he says, " Merchants watch 
the markets: they know what ship brings corn, what 
hemp, what coal ; how much cotton there is at New York, 
or New Orleans ; how much gold in the Ijanks. They 
learn these things because they live by the market, and 
seek to get money by their trade. Politicians watch the 
turn of the people and the coming vote, because they live 
by the ballot-box, and wish to get honor and oflice by 
their skill. So a minister who would guide men to wis- 
dom, justice, love, and piety, and to human welfore, — he 
must watch the great men, and know what quantity of 



36 

truth, of j ustice, of love, and of fiiitli there is m Calhoun, 
Webster, Clay ; because he is to live by the word of God, 
and only asks thy ' kingdom come ! ' " 

It has been seen of what stuff this man's rhetoric is 
made. Here is a specimen of his logic. A more perfect 
instance of the nou scquitur can scarcely be found. The 
professor of rhetoric is already furnished; — here is a rich 
godsend to the professor of logic. How it follows that 
because the merchant must watch the markets to make 
money, and the politician watch politics to get office, that 
the minister must watch Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, 
particularly, may be " as clear as mud." Can anybody 
see it ? 

We reverence the priestl}' office, and him who is a true 
minister to the souls of his fellow men, and would not say 
a word in disparagement of ihem, but we cannot help see- 
ing how much more appropriate it would be to this pseu- 
do minister, this pseudo martyr, this pseudo second Chrid, 
for such he aspires to be thought, if he had followed out 
his comparison as he began it, and, after making out the 
merchant and the politician to be wholly mercenary, treat- 
ing all alike, he had made out the minister to be merce- 
nary also. Instead of his present non scquiiur, the following 
scquitur is at least in agreement with the rest of the argu- 
ment. "A minister (one of them at least) watches the 
reliti-ious market, and carefullv notes the fluctuations of 
popular sentiment. He marks in what article there is the 
lead couipetHiou, because he intends to get a living by 
trading in such theological 'notions' as he can get the most 
profit from, and in which he can do the most business on 
the smallest capital." 

80 much for this S2)ecinicn of logic; yet we shall find, 
further on, that this metaiihor mauLrliua: lo<j:ic bruiser has 
the puerile audacity to say that Daniel Webster was not 
n rcamncr ! "We mu.'^t deny him the great reason "(!) 



He has an evident taste for posies ; — on page eleventh 
he sa3^s, " Hancock and Samuel Adams, Washington, Mad- 
ison, Jackson, — each was a childless /(9;r<?r." But as if to 
make the absurdity more glaring, he uses the \vord fruit 
in a single instance, a little further on, where he says, 
"Here and there an American family continues to bear 
famous /;v»y." This is an occasion too good to be lost, and 
he slips in a compliment to a leader of the free-soil 
party — this nopartu man — in these terms : — 

'• A sinde New Eno-land tree, rooted " where ? "flir off 
in the Marches of Wales," this New Enfjland tree ! " is yet 
green with life, though it has twice hlossomed with presi- 
dents." 

It is to be doubted whether the free-soil descendant of 
two presidents will thank him for insinuating that his 
father and grandfather being oxAy floivers not fruit, he him- 
self is as yet only a hud. However, there is no knowing 
what he may come to 3'et, if Theodore Parker shall con- 
tinue to " dii2; about and dung " him. 

It is to be hoped that by the time he has blossomed 
into the third president of the family, and like his vene- 
rated predecessors, has dropped off of the tree, and this 
discourser shall be called upon to deliver the eulogy,, liis 
" flowers " of rhetoric will have developed into " fruits of 
sense," or at least will not be as they are now, the unmis- 
takable botanical evidence that their producer is poisonous. 

There seems to be no end to this author's perversion^". 
He says " Bacon, Shakespeare, Leibnitz, Newton, D-escar- 
tes, and Kant, died and left no sign," meaning no children. 
In the oriyrinal author it reads " makes no siprn" and oe- 
curs in a scene where a djnng man is speechless, and 
those about him wish to know the state of his mind. "He 
dies and makes no sio;n ! " The flict is, it seems to be a 
common trick with this "juggler" whom "a Guinea 

4 



38 

nesrro " would be to take " a crreater man than Franklin," 
see Discourse, page C, to use avoids in such a way as 
to get the advantage o^ their prcsfif/e in the reader's mind, 
yet grive the orio-inal author no credit. 

On page 12 we find the following: "A great mind 
is like an elephant in the line of ancient battle, — the 
best ally if you can keep him in the ranks fronting the right 
way ; but, if he turn about, he is the fatalest foe and 
treads his master imder his feet. Great minds have a 
trick of turning round." This is at first view a plausible 
comparison, — very striking, but like all of this author's 
(/reat ihiuf/s it is " lath and plaster," and will not bear ex- 
amination. A " great mind " is no mere embodiment of 
Ijrute force, employed like an elephant by the commander, 
but he is himself a leader, and never "turns round" unless 
some of the UKlc minds behind him get to thinking them- 
selves great, and so attempt to injure the commander, and 
lead the army astray. Then indeed he "turns round" with 
a vengeance, and there is havoc and consternation among 
the Aliens, the Ingersolls, the Manns, and the Parkers, — 
they lose henceforth their power to injure, and their cor- 
poralships together. 

The following is quoted as a curiosity of modest self- 
appreciation, — mark the Fs. "Hence /spoke of Dr. 
Channing whose word went like morning over the conti- 
nent. Hence /spoke of John Quincy Adams, and did 
not fear to point out every error /thought /discovered 
in the great man's track which ended so proudly in the 
right ; " (that is in free-soil ;) " and /did homage to all the 
excellence 1 found though it was the most unpopular ex- 
cellence. Hence /spoke of General Tavlor ; ves, even 
of General Harrison, a very ordinary man but available, 
and accidentally in a great station." 

The discourser winds up his preliminary remarks as 
follows : — 



39 

"' So much, my friends, and so long," and avc will ven- 
ture to put in so narroiv and so shulloiu " as preface to this 
estimate of a great man." 



CHAPTER V. 

HIS NARRATIVE. 
'• 0, -vvliile you live tell truth and shame the de-\-il." Shakespeare. 

\{^ come now to the narrative portion of the Discourse, 
and review the first brief sketch with a feeling of relief — 
for a wonder there are several pages that are nearly un- 
exceptionable. In reading it the heart is warmed with a 
glow of admiration at the worthy example which the 
earl}^ 3'ears of Daniel Webster's life present for the bene- 
fit and imitation of the j^oung men of America. Even 
the author of the Discourse comes in for a share of kindly 
approval, and were we not aware of his besetting sin, the 
love of producing an effect, we should even in this review 
award him a meed of praise ; but when a little further 
on he opens upon him with the fell intent of making it 
appear that the noblest part of his reputation belongs to 
another, our loathing returns in greater force than ever, 
and we feel that we have left the '■' jlou'crfj " fields of me- 
taphor where the deadly nightshade '-'blossoms" flourish 
in the mockery of beauty, only to advance into the noi- 
some den where its poison is distilled, and concentrated 
for the murderer's use. 

It is in vain to try to alter the current of our commen- 
tary. Even here in the simple narrative occur some 



40 

clmracteristic specimens in the flower and figure line. On 
the seventeenth page we read, " Only two or three months 
in the year was there a school: often only a movable 
school that ark of the Lord, shifting from place to place." 

If the discourser can point out any particular ^nA pecu- 
liar resemblance between the school and the ark of the 
Lord, he would do the world a favor to give it in some 
future discourse. The only resemblance herein alluded 
to seems to be their mutual movahlllti/, and that resem- 
blance is shared with Obcd Edora's " new cart ; " see 2 
Samuel, chapter 6, beginning at the third verse, and the 
simile might just as logically' be made to read thus, " a 
movable school that new cart." If he had said a school 
which, like the ark of the Lord, was moved from place 
to place until a fitting permanent resting-place was pre- 
pared for it, the figure would do well enough ; but to 
make the one the actual unqualified representative of the 
other, and their names synonymous, requires that they be 
more nearly identical than a school and the ark of the 
covenant appear to be. Possibly the Twenty-Eighth Con- 
ffrecrational Society have had their minds enlaro-ed to the 
extent of a full appreciation of the resemblance, but the 
New Music Hall in Boston Avill not hold us all, and if v>e 
are mistaken in the criticism, the point is really worthy 
of a separate discourse. Will not the " nn'nister, etc." take 
it into consideration ? 

Further on we fall in with another characteristic meta- 
phor. Ik' says, ''But Mr. Wood had small Latin, and less 
Greek, and only taught what he knew. Daniel was an 
ambitious boy, and apt to learn. Men wonder that some 
men can do so much with so little outward furniture. 
The wonder is the other way. He was more colleire than 
the collen'C itself, and had a university in his head. It 
takes time, and the swe;it of oxen, and the shouting of 
drivers, goading and whipping, to get a cart-load of cider 



41 

to the top of Mount Washington ; but the eagle flics 
there on his own wide wings, and asks no help." 

The above " gem of purest ray serene " must have cost 
the diver at least ten years' shortening of his natural life 
to bring it up from its " dark unflithomed cave," and the 
reader is exhorted to admire it accordingly. To mix 
the metaphor a little by way of adaptation to the subject, 
this chimeratic eructation from a weak and dyspeptic 
mental stomach, this conceit conceited, not conception 
conceived, this rhetorical Macduff, not born, but ripped 
out b}^ carelessness or misdemeanor, with " the mother's 
mark " of the clouds and the cow yard upon it, half eagle, 
half cider barrel, is intended to illustrate the flict that 
Daniel Webster could learn Latin and Greek with but 
little external assistance, while somebody else had a hard 
time of it with a regular ox-team to help him I Dan is 
the eagle plain enough, but who upon earth is the cider 
barrel ? Out with it, Theodore ; is it you ? No, that can- 
not be, for you are a teetotaller, and besides it is evident 
by this time that you don't hold much more than a pint. 
The question must lie over for the next issue of not Put- 
nam's Monthly, but Parker's AVeekly, when we shall no 
doubt be enlightened upon the profound speculation, 
" have we an intellectual cider barrel amongst us ? " 

There is now and then a good metaphor in this " Dis- 
course," but it is a remarkable fiict that they are only to 
be found where by accident a imth has been embodied. 
Take for instance this, on page IG. 

'• The mother, one of the ' black Eastmans,' was quite a 
superior woman. It is often so. When vidm leaps high 
in the jmhlic fountain you seek for the lofty spring of noble- 
ness, and find it far off in the dear breast of some mother 
who melted the snows of winter, and condensed the sum- 
mer's dew into fair, sweet humanity, which now gladdens 
the face of man in all the city streets." So then '• virtue'' 

4* 



42 

did '■' leap hi(jh in the puhlic fountain^' i\\^i is the breast o^ 
Webster, after all ! What contradiction 1 Mr. Parker let 
this stand in the •■' pamphlet" because he thought it did liiui 
credit as a writer. It is one of his miserable affectations 
after all. 

After this brief notice of Webster's early youth, the 
author goes on to mention, with some short comments, the 
most prominent public incidents in his life, and continu- 
ing, gives the chronology of his various calls to public sta- 
tions, calling this a condensed map of his outward history, 
after which he says, 

" Look next at the headlands of his life." 

Up to this time the hostile intentions of the preacher 
xiave not been openly disclosed; but then follows the 
most direct, determined, and diabolically reckless attack 
that the Discourse contains. An attack that seems to 
have been conceived in a wanton disregard of rational 
consideration and impartial inference. 

No wonder that Theodore Parker says, on page 82, 
" We must deny to Mr. AVebstcr the great Reason ! " lie is 
not constituted for an appreciation of ^^ the great Reason." 
He knows not how to lay the foundation of an argument. 
His Archimedean lever with which he vainly imagines he 
moves the world, when he merely sways his own coterie, 
not only lacks the^w/y;^ d'appui, the stalde fulcrum, but is 
indeed no Archimedean lever at all, but only the show- 
man's "long pole," with which, projected from himself, and. 
having no oiXiov 2mrchasc,\\Q stirs up the "Twenty-Eighth 
•Congregational Society in Boston," and when the New 
Music Hall reverberates their growls of applause/== he 
thinks it is an earthquake. 

To build a building, one must have a foundation. It 

* "Wlu-n the Twonty-Eiglitli Conjiregational Society are pleased, they laugh 
aloud, and when they particularly approve the sentiment, they applaud in the 
style of thu pit of a theatre. 



43 

Avill not do to assume the basis of an argument. Theodore 
Parker assumes that slavery', ^j^r sc, is wrong, — he argues 
among other things, from that assumption, that Daniel 
Webster told a three hours' lie, in the Senate Chamber, on 
the seventh of March, 1850. In this he is like Sindbad 
the Sailor, who, with his companions, landed on a whale's 
back, assuming it to be an island ; but when they had got 
their fires well to burning, the whale dove, and they all 
went under. So Parker and his crew have landed on 
ungrounded sentiment, that is "very like a Avhale." 
Tliev have Q-ot too-ether a i»;ood deal of drift-wood, waifs 
and estraj^s on the flood of error, and are assaying to make 
a beacon light with their rubljish, for the benefit of mari- 
ners ; but when the fire has got Avell to burning, and the 
monster's thick cuticle begins to fiy, we shall see them all 
submerged; and while the fishy afiair they assumed to be 
so solidly grounded goes downward out of sight, they'll 
all be seen paddling for dear life. 

Having received a wholesome lesson, it is to be hoped 
that they will make some point o the mainland, w^liere 
their lives may be prolonged to warn others not to make 
an island of a whale's back. 

Daniel \Yebster was remarkable for the breadth and 
solidit}^ of the foundation of his argument. So far from 
mistaking some monster of ocean for an island, and using 
it as such, he never took so small a position as an island. 
He used a continent at least, often a hemisphere, and 
sometimes the four quarters of the globe, as his founda- 
tion. Keeping this fact in view, we quote the entire 
attack upon his fame as a constitutional jurist, and, allow- 
ing all the facts put forth in it, (of whose truth we neither 
know nor care to know,) we take the broad ground that 
they prove nothing. 

AVe quote Discourse, page 22 : " I know that much of 
his present reputation depends on his achievements as a 



^ 



44 



lawyer, — as an ^expounder of the Constitution.' Unfor- 
tunately (!) it is not possible for me to say how much 
credit belono;s to Mr. AVebster for his constitutional ar^u- 
ments, and how much to the late Judge Story. The pub- 
lication of the correspondence between those gentlemen 
will perhaps help settle the matter ; but still, much exact 
legal information was often gi^xm by word of mouth (I) 
during j^ersonal interviews, and that must forever re- 
main hidden from all but him who gave, and him who 
took." (IIow peurile must this appear to those who 
knew Daniel Webster ! Does any one believe that in 
their intellectual barter, Daniel Webster went away in 
debt even to such a man as the erudite Story ? " Par no- 
lile fratnim''' — ^they each gave and each took of the other 
what seldom comes from human lips. Happy would it 
have been for Mr. Parker if he could have picked up 
even the "crumbs that fell'' from their rich table, albeit 
no Lazarus in any thing but his jDresent destitution.) 
" However, from 181 G to' 1842, Mr. AVebster was in the 
habit of drawing from that deep and copious well of legal 
knowledge, whenever his own bucket was dry. (!) (One 
would suppose a dr}' bucket would scarcely hold water 
even from another man's well. He should have said nxU 
instead of bucket, but his rhetoric is incorrigible.) 3Ir. 
Justice Story was the Jupiter Pluvius from whom Mr. 
Webster often sought to elicit peculiar thunder." (where 
is Jupiter Tonans all this time? "in thunder, lightning, or 
in rain," all is one to our rhetorician. When will '• the 
chair" at Cambridge be vacant ?) "for his speeches and 
private rain for his own pul)lic tanks of law." (Even 
that is better than to expectorate upon the public as ^Ir. 
Parker does.) The statesman u-ot the lau\cr to draft 
bills, to make suggestions, to furnish facts, precedents, 
law, and ideas. (Mr. Webster had business enough to 
have employed a good many in getting his cases ready 




45 

for him.) He went on this aqiiilicican business:, asking aid, 
now in a bankruptcy bill in 181G and 1825 ; then in (ques- 
tions of the law of nations in 1827 ; next in matters of cri- 
minal law in 1830 ; then of constitutional law in 18o2 ; 
then in relation to the north-eastern boundary in 1838 ; in 
matters of international law again, in his negotiations 
with Lord Ashburton in 1842. "You can do more for 
me than all the rest of the world," wrote the Secretary 
of State, April 9, 1842, "because you can give me the 
lights I most want ; and if you furnish them I shall be 
confident that they will ))e true lights. I shall trouble 
you greatly for the next three months." (Well, what if 
he did? does it follow, because Story sometimes furnished 
lights that Daniel Webster had no eyes ? Does it follow 
that a man does not see, because another man sells him 
the best winter strained oil ?) And again, July 16, 1842, 
he writes, " Nohocl>/ hut yourself can do this." ( Story w^as a reg- 
ular le2;al whale it seems, with a head full of the best kind 
of spermaceti !) " But alas ! in his later years the benefi- 
ciary sought to conceal the source of his supplies. Jupiter 
Pluvius had himself been summoned before the court of 
the hio-her law." "Much of Mr. W^ebster's flune as a 
constitutional lawyer rests on his celebrated argument in 
the Dartmouth College case. But it is easy to see that 
the facts, the law, the precedents, the ideas, and the con- 
clusions of that argument, had almost all of them been 
presented Ijy ]\Iessrs. Mason and Smith, in the previous 
trial of the case." 

This attack on AYebster's fame as a constitutional law- 
yer, reminds one of a silly ram 1)utting a boulder of 
o-ranite. It does not hurt the boulder, but the animal re- 
coils with a half summersault that lands him on his back. 

We commend to our author for a warning, the exam- 
ple of the pertinacious piece of mutton we read of, whose 



46 

master, determined to cure the vicious animal of enacting 
such frequent battery, hung up a billet of wood under a 
tree, and leaving the vir [/regis butting away at sundown 
with commendable and pains-taking perseverance, re- 
paired to the scene at sunrise the next day, and found 
the animal all used up but the tail, and that was travel- 
lino; back and forth like a weaver's .^buttle. What we 
wish our author to take particular notice of, is the fact, 
that the billet of wood does not appear to have sustained 
any material injury, but the animal was evidently ^' in ex- 
tremist 

It is well known that Daniel AVebster was remarkable 
for his faculty of getting just the right kind of informa- 
tion from the right kind of men. He did not pretend to 
know every thing intuitively, — no truly great man pre- 
tends it. He had the good sense to gather materials 
from their proper sources. He could, doubtless, have got 
at truth, even from Theodore Parker, by his skill in the 
rcdudio ad ahsurdam. He loved to converse with what are 
called common men, not only about common things, but 
j)ublic affairs, and political principles. His neighbors in 
Marshfield know about that. He did not shut himself 
up as closely as an oyster in a shell of self-conceit, and 
reason of the universal world from a grain or two of 
sand that was inclosed in it ; nor yet, like the spider, did 
he spin a web from his'^own private and peculiar abdo- 
men. He asked, and he received of others. 

He was an architect, not a dealer in bricks, and granite, 
and lime, — in lumber, and nails, and paint. He obtained 
his materials of those who could l)est furnish them, lie 
had not time to do every thing, — his mind had no oppor- 
tunity to go into minute details, but was he any less the 
architect ? 

Does Nicholas govern Ilussia ? It is supposed that he 



47 

does ; but by and hy Theodore Parker Avill be travelling 
that way, and come across a letter of his, inquiring how 
large an amount of powder there is at Cronstadt, and 
then he will proclaim that the keeper of the public pow- 
der in Cronstadt is emperor of all the Russias, and not 
this much-talked-of Nicholas. 

Grant that Mr. Justice Story, whose fame is the price- 
less property, and one of the noblest honors of America, 
did give Daniel Webster much information upon inter- 
national and other departments of law ; did not Coke, and 
Littleton, and Blackstone, and Vattell give much informa- 
tion to Mr. Justice Story? and will any one pretend, 
because he availed himself of all the sources of legal and 
juridical information, posthumous or contemporary, to 
which he could gain access, that any one of Joseph Story's 
masterly argumentary juridical decisions was any the less 
his own ? 

It is not the material, but the combination of material 
that makes the argument. 

Away, then, with this most preposterous pretence of 
doubt as to Daniel Webster's merit as a constitutional ad- 
vocate and lawyer ; and away, too, with this denier of 
'• the great Reason," who does not argue, but Uundcrs, that 
Daniel Webster was not really the " Expounder of the 
Constitution." Let him get off betimes from the slimy, 
slipper}^ back of his anti-slavery whale, before his Ijeacon 
fire burns into the quick, and he is submerged ; — let him 
scramble into his shallop; hoist sail; ply oar; and hasten 
to plant himself upon the solid "world" which Webster 
"bestrides like a colossus;" let him betake himself to 
some good professor of rhetoric and logic, in a fiivorable 
place for botanical observation ; and, if he can get a 
chance, support himself meanwhile, by hiring out to feed 
and stir up the animals for some keeper of a zoological 
garden, and so learn the use of metaphor, the chopping 



f 



48 

of logicj the fructification of flowers, and the difference 
between the BLack Swan and the poet's Pegasus. 

But if, after all, he should prove naturally incapable of 
proper instruction, and should emerge upon the disgusted 
world with his old stock of " blossoms," and '' donkeys," 
and "movable schools," and "cider barrels," then, for the 
benefit of the rising generation portion of the " Twenty- 
Eighth Congregational Society," for whose rhetoric and 
logic we have a kindh- regard, we hereby publicly offer our 
friendly aid, that this literary ape ma}' no more climb the 
rhetorical pole without having his "unprotected parts" ••' of 
speech properly cared for. We will be his Jupiter Plu- 
vius, and sprinkle his "blossoms" from all unseemliness, 
while he remains ^^ suh iegminc fyagi" or if that gives him 
too much wnhmge we will take him supra mmhmn until the 
shower is over, and "Jupiter Tonans" shall never divulge 
it, so much as by a single thunderclap. 

If this does not suit him, and he continues to trans- 
gress, .we will enter suit against him in the name of the 
Muses, for a trespass upon Parnassus, in tramping over 
the flower-beds in jack-boots, and hitching his hobby-horse 
to the columns of the temple of Fame. 

One of the worst features of this attack on Mr. Web- 
ster, is the hypocrisy manifested. Mr. Parker laid his 
plan very deep, as he thought. He begins by a delibe- 
rate endeavor to create the impression, that he loved and 
admired Daniel AVebster, that he might gain a position 
in the reader's mind from which he could administer his 
poison the more effectuall}- ; but, notwithstanding his art- 
fulness, his internal nature will ]ioke out its snake-head, 
now and then, prematurely, lie begins the work of de- 
traction, by craftily assuming to pity AVebstefs sad defi- 
ciencies in accurate scholarship. He follows with an at- 

* See Discourse, page 80. 



40 

tack on liis legal flimc. He goes on insidiously to awaken 
the prcjiidiccs of democrats, by artfully holding him up 
as a red-hot, anti-patriotic federalist, quoting from news- 
papers the most virulent expressions he can lay hold of, 
endeavoring all the while to give the impression that 
these are Mr. AVebster's sentiments, and m fact winding 
up a list of vile extracts, abusive of the democrats, by 
sajdng in so many words, " such was the language of Mr. 
Webster, and the party he served." To make this bare- 
faced misrepresentation appear in all its unscrupulous 
malignity, we will quote Theodore Parker's language in 
full, that the reader may sec how much of the language 
he quotes is from Mr. Webster. We begin on page 29. 
Let the reader look for himself, and see if our extract is 
fairly made, and includes all it purports to include. We 
quote from the Discourse. 

"Said a leading federal organ, 'The Union is dear; 
commerce is still more dear.' 'The Eastern States agreed 
to the Union for the sake of their commerce.' 

"With the federalists there was a great veneration for 
England. Said Mr. Fisher Ames, ' The immortal spirit of 
the wood-nymph Liberty dwells only in British oak.' 
' Our country,' quoth he, 'is too big for union, too sordid 
for patriotism, and too democratic for liberty.' 'Eng- 
land,' said another, ' is the bulwark of our religion,' and 
the 'shield of alllicted humanity.' A federalist news- 
paper at Boston censured Americans as ' enemies of 
Eno-land and monarch v,' and accused the democrats of 
'antipathy to kingly power.' Did democrats complain 
that our prisoners were ill treated by the British, it was 
declared ' foolish and wicked to throw the blame on the 
British government !' Americans expressed indignation 
at the British outrages at Hampton — burning houses and 
violating the women. Said the federal newspapers, ' It is 

5 



50 

impossible that their (the British) miUtar}- and naval men 
should be other than magnanimous and humane.'" (Did 
any of these papers, jNIr. Parker, ever say that any par- 
ticular person -was "honest," "open, English; not Yan- 
kee!") "Mr. Clay accused the federalists of ^plots that 
aimed at the dismemberment of the Union/ and de- 
nounced the party as ^conspirators against the integrity of 
the nation.' 

"In general, the federalists maintained that England 
had a right to visit American vessels to search for and 
take her own subjects if found there ; and, if she some- 
times took an American citizen, that was only an *^ inci- 
dental evil.' ' Great Britain,' said the Massachusetts 
legislature, 'has done us no essential injury: she was 
fighting the battles of the world.' They denied that she 
had impressed 'any considerable number of American 
seamen.' Such zvas the language of Mr. Webster and the 
l)arty he served^ 

There are the extracts, — there is the closing assertion. 

Will it be credited that Mr. Parker had not quoted 
one single, solitary word, syllable, or letter from ]Mr. 
Webster when he says, " Such was the language of Mr. 
Webster?" Such is indeed the fact. Is it too severe in 
view of this to say that " the truth is not in him ?'' If so. 
what add'dional amount of misrepresentation would be ne- 
cessary to make the application just ? 

Fortunately for this traducer of the dead, he is amen- 
able to no "council."'-' But there is a council that 
will take cognizance of this matter — the council of a 
discriminating public. Hereafter let Mr. Parker stand 
up to teach religion at his peril. AVho will sit and hear 
him ? 

*Mr. Parker was selj-installed over the Twcnty-Eiglith Congregational So- 
ciety. 



51 

Four more entire pages are devoted to this subject of 
federalism, and extract on extract quoted from newspapers, 
and speeches of distinguished partisans, upon the demo- 
cratic side, all calculated to give the reader the impres- 
sion that the man who could be so savagely vituperated 
must have been a monster of political iniquity : and this 
precious omnium gcdhcrum is spread out over these four 
pages of this Discourse, for the sole purpose, as he naively 
remarks, and repeats the remark, of what does the reader 
suppose? Why this: "I mention these things that all may 
understand the temper of those times." He does, really! 
We do all understand the temper of those times, and, in 
addition, we fully understand the temper of the abhorrent 
ghoid who thus roots up the filth of the buried past, to 
foul with it the sacred grave of the recent dead. The 
grave of the dead ? Nay, worse. The dead man, when 
he began the Discourse, was not yet buried. It w^as to 
defile with, it the coffin and the shroud, nay, even the 
very flowers which a sad household then were strewing 
as the fragrant tribute, typical of a wife's holy love, and 
an only son's affection. In view of this horrid profana- 
tion, we are impelled to say with Cassio, " If thou hast 
no name to be known bv, let us call thee — devil!" 

In the entire eight pages which are devoted to the 
subject of Mr. Webster's relations to federalism, there is 
one single quoiation from Mr. Webster himself! Believe it 
or not, — look for yourselves, — only one single quota- 
tion ! This quotation w^e give, that the height and the 
depth, and the length and the breadth, of Mr. Webster's 
offending, even in those times, when everybody else was 
taxinfi- the Enj^lish lan^-uao-e to the uttermost to enrich 
their vituperative vocabulary, may be fully apparent. 

Here follows the solitary quotation : " I honor," said 
he, " the people that shrink from such a contest as this. 
I applaud their sentiments : they are such as religion and 



52 

humanity dictate, and siicli as none but cannihaU would 
wish to eradicate from the human heart." 

On^ page 35 we are introduced to the discourser's 
grand hobby, his cheval dc hatcdlle, the ''' slavery question." 
How he could have loitered so long in the rhetorical par- 
terre among the "blossoms," while that redoubtable steed, 
"all saddled, all bridled, all fit for the fight," stood by the 
horse-block, neighing for his rider, is indeed a wonder, for 
the discourser's place is decidedly in the saddle, and not 
amom; the flowers. When settled in the seat, his toes in 
the stirrups, and his long pole in rest, he is a regular 
moral Paladin, or, bating that, a Don Quixotte at least. 
For a Sanclio Panza to match, the reader may take his 
pick among abolition editors. 

But, after all, we find he has not j^et mounted, — he 
merely called the horse by name to silence his neighings, 
and pacify him for a little longer. He occupies some 
pages more with brief glances at Mr. Webster's public 
life, retailing some things, omitting others, and keeps up 
a running accompaniment of innuendo, insinuation, and 
sometimes direct accusation, with now and then an 
imputation upon his honor and honesty. The oljject 
of all this is perfectly plain. He is trying to enlist 
his hearers and readers against Mr. Webster, that, when 
he finally gets on horseback, he may run 'him down Avith 
the full approbation of all concerned, and his hohhy-horse 
get the glory of the victory. 

Is he sly in this? Is he crafty? this theologian — 
this " stand-by-for-I-am-holier-than-thou " philanthropist, 
who monopolizes all the honebt>/, and allows none to Daniel 
Webster ? 

We would seriously say to honest men of the same 
political party witli this minister, are you willing to trust 
such an evident trickster? Are the elements of even 
connuon honesty in liim? Will you allow liiiu to make 






a bridire of this Discourse from the rostrum of the New 
Music Hall in Boston to any political office ? He means 
to use you by and by. 

Are the seeds of greatness in him ? 

If they are they " blossom " at times with some queer 
lookino; "flowers," and we look in vain for fruit. 

Let it be here fully understood that we blame no man 
for an honest opinion, and a fair expression of it ; nor for 
open, undisguised hostility, displayed in subordination to 
the ordinary decencies of life. It is natural that men 
should differ — difler widely — sometimes, in this world, 
irreconcilably, and we blame no man for it. If this man, 
Theodore Parker, had used no unfairness — been guilty 
of no mean subterfuges — outraged no man's feelings by 
indecent expressions, we would never have opened our 
mouth in any thing but pure argument, even though he 
had treated Daniel AVebster's character with thrice triple 
severity. With Dr. Johnson, Ave " like an honest hater," 
and respect him too ; but we neither like, nor respect, a 
mean, sneaking, canting hypocrite who " takes a man by 
the beard " as if to kiss him, and then " stabs him under 
the fifth rib." With honest Mercutio we can't help saying 
of such an eneui}^ 



^, 



" Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death!" 

In referring to Webster's Reply to Hayne there was 
opportunity, if Theodore Parker had any desire for such 
an opportunity, to have said something in hearty praise 
of the man, but that did not suit, either his disposition, 
or his general design. In this part we plainly discern 
the preacher's hostility to the Union — his leaning to- 
wards nullification. Perhaps this Pilate of Massachusetts 
will make friends, and strike hands with some Herod of 
South Carolina, on this question. The result of such 



54 

conjunction niiglit bear some resemblance to the ••fig- 
ures" \vitli ^vhich this " Discourse " is adorned. 

In the matter of the "Ashburton Treaty," so called, it 
has been seen that Theodore Parker has the conceited 
impertinence, in his last edition, to deny Daniel Webster 
any credit whatever ! See extracts. 

Verily, it is high time to send Theodore to Congress ; 
he evidently knows more than anybody' else on the 
"great questions." "He is the man; wisdom will die 
with him." Let us make haste and secure his services 
before " Death," who " loves a shining mark," shall de- 
prive us of the privilege. 

When we all know that the English press abounded in 
expressions to the effect that " the great Yankee had over- 
reached, and outwitted Ashburton," and caricatures were 
published in London representing the same thing, we 
shall not need to trouble ourselves with this yelp of 
depreciation from the rostrum of the New Music Hall, 
which never would have appeared in print if its author 
had been nine days old in pohtical knowledge and under- 
standing. Let him get his eyes open before he begins 
to be dogmatic on a great question like that. 

When any persons whose opinions in matters^ of states- 
manship are of any consequence accept the views of 
Theodore Parker on this treaty matter, it Avill be time 
enough to treat this attack seriousl}'. Lentil that fabu- 
lous period we leave his argument mitouched, and pass 
on to his closing flourish of rhetoric, at which we pause 
a moment; for his benefit and that of our schoolboys. 
We quote: "After the conclusio-n of the treaty, Mr. 
Webster came to Boston. You remember his speech in 
1842 in Faneuil Hall, lie was then sixty years old. He 
had done the ""reat deed of his life. He still lield a high 
station. He scorned or affected to scorn the littleness of 



55 



party, and its narrow platform, and claimed to represent 
the people of the United States. Everybody knew the 
importance of his speech. I counted sixteen reporters 
of the New England and Northern press at that meeting. 
It was a proud day for him, and also a stormy day. 
Other than friends were about him. It was thought he 
had just scattered the thinider which impended over the 
nation : a sullen cloud still hung over his own expecta- 
tions of the presidency, lie thundered his eloquence 
into that cloud, — the great ground-lightning of his 
Olympian power." 

It is with unfeigned reluctance that we meddle with 
this metaphor. We would have much rather let it stand, 
for it escapes as it were by a mere half inch being truly 
magnificent — worthy of the subject, worthy of the occa- 
sion. But it must be done. The knife must go into this 
gas-bag, and down must he come without even a para- 
chute to break his fall. We hope and trust, if it does 
not break his neck, it will teach him to fly in a safe and 
proper manner hereafter, or else remain below, which 
latter is the course we would recommend to him. 

We pass over the dubious question of the propriety of 
impending " thunder^' which he uses instead of thunder- 
cloud, because he wanted to use cloud again in the next 
line, and proceed to remark that it is a well established 
fact that "ground-lightning" makes no noise, ^w^ there- 
fore it is a blunder to represent Webster as thundering 
"ground-lightning" into a cloud. Many a man has seen 
a thunderbolt dart downward to the earth, and heard the 
deafenino; thunder ; but who has ever seen a thunderbolt 
go lip into a cloud with any similar explosion? — and if 
they have seen it, did it seem to hurt the cloud ' The 
fact is, to treat this matter good-naturedly, it wont do at 
all, Theodore. It is contrary to nature. Yes, contrary 
to the classic writers also. You have read the classical 



56 

dictionary, ]Mr. Parker, — you know some Latin and some 
Greek. You arc aware that Jupiter, Olf/mpian Jupiter, 
had a scat up aloft, and when he was in ill humor used 
to discharge his wrath and his thunderbolts together 
upon mortals below; while deep in the bowels of mother 
eartli old Vulcan had set up his forge, ^Nlount ^Etna was 
his chimney, and there he forged the thunderbolts for the 
Father of gods and men : but do you think that Jupiter 
would ever have tolerated the carelessness of having the 
new thunderbolts shot up into the Olympian regions, with 
OI//mp{an xioha ^wdL "power?" No, no. He would have 
had Juno and the young ones about his ears incontinently 
if he had. You must acknowledsre it would look careless. 
But Vulcan knew better. The "lame Lemnian" had an 
eye to business, and, when he had a quantity sufficient 
for a load, he sent them up quietly on a dumb waiter! 

Seriously, the mythology of the ancients embodies a 
good deal of philosophical truth in figurative language. 
Just imagine Ol^mipian Jupiter standing down below 
upon the ground, and throwing his thunderbolts upward 
at the clouds ! The hidden cause of the discourser's 
failures in the fi[>'ure line is to be found in his fondness 
for the sonorous, in consequence of which he sometimes 
gives us "vo.v ct prctcrca nihiW "Great ground-lightning 
sounded so well in his ear, that he either, in his admira- 
tion of the noise it made, forgot to examine into its cor- 
rectness, or, which is more probable, from his repeated 
blunders of that sort, did not know anv better. 

lie criticise Daniel Webster! lie deny the "great 
reason ! " 

It is recommended as a step to the improvement of his 
style, that he peruse the Eulogies of Everett, Ilillard, San- 
born, and Clioate ujUJU the subject of this Discourse. Let 
him, in those l)eautirul tributes to the great dei>arted, 
iind, if he can, any donkeys and swans — eagles and cider 



57 



btarrels — blossoms and ground-liglitning, or any otlicr 
"unprotected parts" of speech. 

If he would improve his reasoning faculties, let him 
study the congressional speeches of Webster, Everett, 
Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Cass, Buchanan, etc., and learn 
from them to exercise comprehensive reason, and the 
severity and simplicity of legitimate logic and rhetoric. 
Bronze and gilt may do for " The Twenty-Eighth Con- 
gregational Society," but the Senate of the United States 
discards every thing but genuine bullion. 

If he must continue to be flowcru, let him study Shakes- 
peare, who makes a kingly "progress," scattering his 
glittering coinage as a monarch scatters " largess ; " all 
j)ure gold w'itli the legal stamp of genius on it, not the 
fallacious " brass of the property-man," with uo recogniz- 
able stamp at all. 



CHAPTER YI. 

" THE HIGHER LAW." 

" .1// discord, harmony not understood; 
All partial evil, universal //ow/." — I'oi'E. 

From the forty-ninth page to the end, the "Discourse" 
is devoted to a consideration of Mr. Webster's course on 
the slavery question, and the vilest and most indecent 
abuse of his private character. He is accused of every 
enormit}^, and the basest motives unsparingly imputed to 
him. As all this flows out of Mr. Parker's holy zeal for 
what he is pleased to term " the higher law," we shall let 
this portion go, after what has already been said of it, 



58 

and extracted from it. The reader lias already been re- 
galed with some of its " baser parts." 

AVe proceed to give a nutshell statement of our view 
of '-'the slavery question," and '-'the higher law." Before 
God. we hflnestly believe as follows : — 

It is not wrong per se to hold property in human be- 
in crs. 

In all civilized countries, children are held as proper/^ by 
their parents until they are " of age." Their parents arc 
not required to give them any compensation but food 
and clothing. The parents can whip them at their dis- 
cretion, without judge or jury, if no undue severity is 
exercised. The parents can sell them to a master, giving 
that master all of their own rights except selling again, 
and our laws recognize this sale as valid and binding until 
they are twenty-one if males, and eighteen if females. 

Will any one deny the propriety of the law on this- 
point ? If they do not, then the question of the abstract 
rifjlil to hold human beings as property is settled. It is 
right under proper circumstances to so hold them and sell 
them. 

The question of abstract right being thus plainly set- 
tled, the question arises, under what circumstances may 
human beings be rightfully held as property ? 

The answer is plain. AVhen the real good of those most 
concerned recpdres it. Will any one dispute this point ? 
If not, let us next inquire whether the real good of those 
most concerned, requires that the negroes at the south, 
like minors all over the land, should be held as property / 

We l)eli(>ve th;it the throe millions of negroes at the 
South are Acry I'ar in advance of <(ug three ndllious of the 
country from which they originally came. Will an>- one 
undertake to denv that? Thev are l)etter fed and 
clothed. T>ett('r cared lor in sickness and old age. Better 
instructed in the usei'id arts of life, and are far higher in 



' 59 

the scale of geiienil intelligence. Better instructecl in re- 
ligion and common virtue. Their moral conduct is vaHlhi 
better than that of tlicir "fetisli" worsliipping country- 
men in Africa, even in the matter of the vianiage relation, 
about which so much is said, for in Africa, travellers tell 
ns, there prevails the most ahsolute loromisciiil//. Will any 
one deny any thing stated so far ? 

We believe that the negro of the South, although so 
much improved, is not ?jct fit for freedom, and would fall 
back into barbarism, and moral and physical degradation, 
if now set free. The emancipation of ihc negro in ilie ^Ycd 
Indies seems io have heen hroiight about h?j the providence of God 
to instruct us in this matter. Those who feel interested, and 
who doubt this opinion, are invited to inquire into the 
matter, and see for themselves. Would it not he wise to 
look before we leap in this thing ? Are we sure that by 
ill-timed effort, and injudicious agitation, we are not en- 
dangering the future welfare of a whole wide continent ? 
That we are not taking measures to prevent the enlight- 
enment and Christianization of Africa ? Is not this of 
importance enough to be looked at ? 

Does this view militate against the true democratic 
principle ? If so, how is it in regard to minors ? Is it 
contrary to true republicanism to keep tJion under guar- 
dianship until they are able to take care of themselves ? 
If not, is it contrary to true democratic principles to keep 
a race under guardianship ? 

We are capable of self-government, and for vs it is the 
only proper form, but is it so all the world over ? Look 
at it full in the ftice. What do you think ? 

Have wc been doing to the South as ive tvoidd he done ly 
in this matter ? Have we approached them in the pro- 
per spirit ? lias our conduct towards them been charac- 
terized by kindness and charity? 

We sincerely believe that it would be better for all 



60 ^ 

concerned if northern Americans would cease to irritate 
their southern countrymen for some ^-ears, and see what 
result that course would bring about. 

In the meanwhile, we believe that it is the dut}' of our 
friends and fellow-countrymen at the South to take up 
the subject seriously, and see if iliey are doing all that 
can be done for their '• little brother," and if there is any 
thing more that can be done safeli/, and in a wise prudence 
for the inferior race, do it, even if it costs i rouble and 
moneij. 

We also believe that it is our duty, as Americans, to do 
all that we can to enable our countrymen at the South to 
carry out the wise and benevolent designs which would 
be sure to be started, in the fulness of their generous 
hearts, if we would let them whoUy alone. 

It is our duty to swallow down our prejudices and mis- 
taken pity, even as the tender parent swallows down his 
rising heart, when called upon b}' iluijj to go contrary- to 
his tenderest feelinus in correctimj; the faults of his dar- 
lin<T: child. 

Before God, the searcher of all hearts, we believe all 
this, and we earnestly commend this view of the subject 
to our candid countrvmen. Kemember the fable of the 
sun and the travellers cloak. Let us no longer bluster 
fiercely about our southern countrymen, Ijut let us pour 
upon them the warm and penetrating rays of a genial 
friendship and a tender regard, and see if they do not 
relax their hold on their cloak of reserve and resist- 
ance, and, in due and proper time, when ilien choose, and 
when they ihink best, remove it. not torn into rags and 
tatters by the bitter nortliern bUist, but taken safely and 
quietly off, and hiid carefully by as no longer needed. 
Then, as fellow-countrymen, we can cordially consult 
with each other, as to tlir best course to pursue in view 
of the eventful past. ;uul the momentous future, in view 



61 

of the best interests of tlie negro, both here and in Africa, 
of our own race, and the universal brotherhood of man- 
kind. 

Our appeal is now to the real philanthropist to say if 
this is not worth the trial. Let human love henceforth 
prevail, "let brotherly love continue," "and God, even 
our own God, will give us his blessing." 

This is our conscicntioHS view of this matter : are our 
countrymen who have disapproved of the 7th of March 
speech prepared to deny us the great fundamental rir/Jd of 
conscience/' Are ihe>/ the only ones who have a right to 
go by "the higher law?" As to Theodore Parker, he 
scofls at the Bible — his Discourse has not even the usual 
preliminary ie.ii — he scofls at the entire Christian com- 
munity, and we do not consider it proper to " cast the 
pearls" of argument "before swine;" we have put the 
ring of a thorough exposure in his snout, and now let 
him root if he can. 

But we do desire to expostulate, reasonably and calm- 
ly, with the honest anti-slavery men. Again we ask, is it 
well to deny the right of conscience to me, and those 
who honestly think with me ? Did you ever look at this 
matter in this light before ? My conscience, guided by 
the best instruction my reason can appreciate, inclines 
me to support the " compromise measures " as the best 
thing that can be done for the real and jjcrnianent good of 
all interested. Are you prepared to say that we are all 
"dishonest," "robbers," "murderers," " man-stealers," and 
the like ? Do you really hcllcvc that we are sinning 
against our reason, our conscience, and our own souls in 
this matter, and that you only are obeying the "higher 
law of God?" Did you ever look at this matter of the 
"higher law" from this point of view? All we ask is the 
same freedom of conscience which you yourselves claim. 

6 



G2 

May we not enjoy it, and yet escape being called by 
every abusive epithet in the English language ? 
AYe leave it for the candid consideration of the honest. 



CHAPTER VII. 

CHARACTER OF WEBSTER. 

"Jle icas a man, talce him for all in all, 
We shall not look upon his like again.''' — Shakespeare. 

It is easy to read the character of Daniel Webster. 

He was " open as the day," and generous as the sun. 

Even his traducer, in his first edition, says he was 
" open, honest, and above-board" — '-if he hated like a 
giant, he loved also like a king." 

Nature in Gcivino; him ^rreat "-ifts of intellect, and the 



most generous aftections, must needs stint him some- 
where ; and how did she do it? Let his traducer answer. 
^^ In his generous nature was no taint of avarice." He had not 
even common worldly prudence in mere personal monej' 
matters. 

In his absence of mind, absorbed in the contemplation 
of an important case, he has been known to make a stop- 
per for his inkstand of a fifty dollar bill retaining fee I 

jVIeeting once a poor woman in the street, he listened 
kindly to her tale of wo, and putting his thumb and 
fmger into his vest pocket to give according to his feel- 
ings, finding there a single bank note, all he had, he 
gave, passed on, and left the wondering suppliant gazing 
after liis majestic form, witli a bill for twenty dollars in 
her trembliuii: fmii-ers! 

This unthiukiusjr Q-enerositv made men lavish in their 



63 

gifts to him. It was as natural for them to give to Daniel 
Webster, as it is to smile in the answering foce of the 
warm-heartecl. 

He was exceedingl}' tender in his feelings. The author 
of this review, at that time a student, sat near to Daniel 
Webster in the old meeting-house in Lexington, while 
that princely orator, Edward Everett, was delivering his 
oration, on the occasion of removing the bones of '■•the 
skill,'' to lay them down in a fitting bed in the shadow 
of the monument erected to the memory of " the battle." 
The pew in which we sat was on the side aisle, cornering 
upon the one where Webster sat, and we often turned to 
look back at him. The orator proceeded, and we became 
so much interested in the recital of the events of the 
" day of Lexington," that we forgot every thing else, until 
just as Everett had concluded the simple but most affect- 
ing narrative of the death of Harrington, who staggered 
from the field to pour out his heart's blood, and die on 
his own threshold, at the feet of that wife who was thus 
cruelly cheated of a last embrace — just at this moment 
our fellow-student and companion, now, alas! no more, 
whispered excitedly in our ear, "Just look at 'Old Dan.'" 
We looked, and there he sat, with the 21'arm tears falling 
fast down those swarthy cheeks, and the broad breast 
heavino; with intense emotion. It was a sidit to be laid 
up to think upon, for a lifetime. 

Yet some men say that Daniel Webster was selfish and 
cold-hearted ! It was his fortune to be malio;ned above 
ordinary men. 

He "wore his" noble "heart upon his sleeve," and 
" daws pecked at " it continually. 

We come now to consider his intellect. 

Some men look upon a subject as a squirrel looks upon 
an acorn, as a thing to put sharp teeth into, that they may 
swallow the meat. Such a man is the author of the 
Discourse. 



G4 

Others, in the acorn, truth, see the oak from which it 
originated, and the future oak, father of acorns, of which 
it is the germ, and phant it for the benefit of coming 
ages. Such a man was Daniel Webster. 

Mr. Parker saj^s " he must deny him the great reason." 

"Not to IvUONV Daniel Webster" as a great reasoner, 
" argues himself not only unknown/' but unknowable as 
such. 

Let us examine this matter. Some men reason as a 
hound follows the game, with their noses to the ground. 
They are good upon a scent, but if they lose it they are 
gone. Others can take in such a comprehensive view, 
that they see the entire course at one glance. 

Mr. Parker's reasoner l3eloniii;s to the former class. 

Daniel Weljster belongs to the latter. His comprehen- 
sion was wonderful. 

God does not reason step by step — he sees. He has 
the Infinite Understanding. 

In his reason "Webster was a finite image and likeness 
of the Infinite Creator, insomuch that men, being im- 
pressed with his wonderful understanding, ^called him 
habitually "the godlike Webster." This was because 
within his finite range of observation, like the Creator in 
his infinite range of observation, he, in the sublime lan- 
guage of the Scriptures, "could see the end from the 
beginning!" 

Mr. Parker's " denial of the great reason " is precisely 
the story of Minutius Specius Spcctacus and the Colossus. 
He denies because he is incapal)le of seeing. 

AVhen Daniel Webster spoke, it was always evident 
that he was master of his subject — master of his audi- 
ence — niaster of his adversary; and all because he was 
mas/cr of himself. 

In \{\A i/cncral power Mr. Wcl)ster was like a sliip of the 
rnic. It took some time for him to "clear for action" — 



65 

to wear into position — to bring his guns to bear; — but 
when all was ready, his broadside was a storm of iron 
death to all that came within his range. Yet he could 
not bring his elofjuence to bear upon a dinner table, any 
more than a seventy-four could discharge a broadside 
into the victualler's "bumboat" that Lay close under the 
bows. 

In displaying \\\s particula?' power, to take another illus- 
tration, he selected some undisputed fundamental principle, 
and poised and pivoted on that, this intellectual ''long-toni 
amidships " could send his single all-sufficient shot or shell, 
point blank, to any distance, and towards any quarter 
where a foe appeared of consequence enough to " pay 
for the powder;" and, withal, to borrow the suggestion 
of a simile from the rich store of our author, it was just 
as easy for this great gun to thunder, as for Parker's pop- 
gun to pop, and decidedlj^ more satisfactory. 

So f\ir from lacking the great reason, Webster's reason 
was so great that it partook of the nature of an instinct. 

He was a Columbus in the realms of reason, and when 
he opened the way to a new world or deigned to set an 
egg on end, Theodore Parker thought that any one could 
do the same. Trying it himself in this Discourse, he has 
discovered nothing but " Noodle's Island," and smashed a 
bad egg. 



G=== 



66 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RULING PRINCIPLE. 

Thy star its Heaven appointed course obeyed. 
Kalians a record of its orbit made : 
Atul, ichile the nations live its course shall be 
Emblazoned on the life charts of the free. 

On page 85 Mr. Parker says of Daniel AVebster, " His 
course was crooked as the Missouri." Truly, '- 1 thank 
thee, Jew, for teaching me that word." His course icas as 
crooked as the Missouri, and as nobly consistent with the 
vaiying interests of the country through which it lield 
on its mighty way. A good comparison truly. He could 
not have found a better. Let this notable reformer 
straiij-hten the Missouri ! 

We commend to Mr. Parker the following quotation 
from Coleridge's translation of '•' Wallenstein : " 

" The way of ancient ordnance, though it winds, 
Is yet no devious way. Straight forward goes 
The lightning's path, and straiglit the fearful path 
Of the cannon ball. Direct it Hies, and rapid, 
Shattering that it mai/ reach, and shattering what it reaches! 
;My son, the road the human being travels. 
That on which blessing comes, and goes, doth follow 
The river's course, the valley's playful windings ; 
Curves round the cornlield, and the hill of vines, 
Honoring the holy bounds of property. 
And thus, secure, though late, leads to its cud ! " 

In considering Daniel Webster's public course, we shall 
resort to an ilhistration. 

In the order of the heavenly bodies we observe this 
fact, that all the orbs, superior and inferior, revolve about 
their particidar centres. They all in their proper place 
gravitate inevitably to that body Nvhich, by reason of its 



67 

superior size, or its greater proximity, stands in the rela- 
tion of their greatest immediate attractor. The satellites 
circle about the planets ; the planets, taking their satel- 
lites with them, revolve around the sun : the sun, taking 
his planets and their satellites with him, is wdieeling 
around some central star of our sun's cluster : doubtless 
our sun's cluster is careering around some mighty orb or 
other cluster in the unknown realms of space : and the 
whole universe is said to spiralize around the throne of 
the Eternal God. 

Man in like manner has his attracting centres, some 
nearer, some more remote. He also obeys that force, 
which, either by position or by powder, is the immediate 
ruling force. 

Suppose, now, we project upon a map the course 
through infinite space of the satellite, for instance our 
moon, as it revolves around the primary, the earth, and, 
in company with the earth, goes around the sun, and, in 
company with the earth and sun, goes around their cen- 
tral star, and then, in company with the earth, sun, and 
central star, goes around some central object, and so on, 
until the vast array of worlds move on their infinite jour- 
ney round about the throne of God. Did it ever enter 
the mind of the reader what a complicated series of 
gyrations the moon goes through in this grand hallet of 
the stars of heaven ? Take a sheet of paper, and try to 
draw the paraboloidal lines her course describes. You 
begin by placing your pen to the paper at one side, and, 
while moving your whole hand in a circle, you describe 
little continuous would-be circles with the fingers, and at 
the same time walk around the room. This gives a 
circle consisting of so many manuscript small (''s, but 
then this circle is itself but a single manuuscript e of a 
larger circle, which circle is but the manuscript c of a 
circle larger still, and so on. The fact that all the cen- 



68 

tres and all the revolving Ijodies are in motion together, 
renders the movement too complicated to conceive of. 

Now, to apply this, let a heing who could see nothing 
but the moon, and her course through the heavens, be 
told that she was obeying strictly the laws which obliged 
her to revolve around the throne of God. '"What!" he 
Avould exclaim in indignant astonishment, " do you call 
that wild, erratic flourishini:: throudi the skies a direct 
and consistent track around the throne of God?" 

Again, suppose he should be told, that in all this appa- 
rently aimless, giddy circumgyration, the moon was only 
plodding on her monthly mill-horse journey round about 
our earth! He would kick at the idea, even as Theodore 
Parker and his one-view friends and admirers do at the 
assertion, that Daniel Webster's course in regard to slavery 
was consistent with the grand central idea of liis life, and 
■with precisely the same amount of intelligent apprecia- 
tion of the matter. 

The grand central idea of Daniel AVebster's life, to 
which, when the time of anv direct anta^'onism came, all 
and any of his other ideas had to bend, in subservience 
to the laws of God, was the preservation of the hopes of 
eventual liheritj for all manJcind, hj insuring the perpctniti/ of our 
Union, and our Constihdion. 

But in his narrowmindedness and imperfect vision, 
quite unable to see this comprehensive consistency, 
Theodore Parker must ^'O out and '•• bav the moon," be- 
cause she does not lly from her appointed sphere, and 
make a bee line for the court of the '• hiiiher law ! " 

It is not pretended that Daniel Webster never changed 
his views and opinions, however. At one i)eriod, honest 
as he was in his love of his countrv, and his whole count r\- 
iie even for a short time imagined that he could stand on 
•the ]5ull;do Platform. It is lucky for him that he did not 
trust his entire weight upon its ilimsy fabric. AVIiut if he 



69 

did put one foot upon it, like the elephant trying the 
strength of a bridge before venturing fully upon it ? 
He took that foot off, after demolishing the bridge with 
its pressure, and on the 7tli of March, 1850, contemning 
all such deceptive assistance, he forded the stream in its 
deepest part, and drew over everybody worth taking on 
a raft behind him. 

Daniel Webster, thank God, did change as often as he 
found he had gone out of the way in " following the mul- 
titude to do evil," and his latest change will be con- 
sidered by posterity as the noblest change of all. 

Is it a crime to change ? 

How criminal ai'c they, 
Who from the paths of -wickedness 

To virtue change their way ! 
Consistency 's so bright a jewel, 
That to preserve it we must do ill, 
And having started wrong, should travel 
Staunchly consistent to the devil ! 

The man that changes oft 

Is termed " a ■weathercock," 
That veers with every wind ; the man 

That's firm is called a rock : 
Let those who choose be changeless stones, 
Stiff stumblin<i; blocks to break men's bones 
While seeking truth ; I'd rather show 
Which way heaven's blessed bre«zes blow. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE VINDICATION. 
" The child is father of the man.'' — 'WoRDSwoRTir. 

If the motto at the head of this chapter embodies a 
truth, then would the early years of Daniel Webster give 



70 

the lie to the base and treacherous calumniator who 
wrote the Discourse under review. Even Theodore Par- 
ker, in this Discourse, on. page 17, says and quotes as 
follows : — 

'' Thither," that is to school, " went Daniel Webster, a 
brave, Ijright boy." " The child is father of the man." 
" Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined," says an- 
other poet ; and we find Daniel Webster, according to 
the account in this Discourse, " fighting for his education 
— studying law with one hand, keeping school with the 
other, and yet finding a third — this yankee Briareus — 
to serve as register of deeds. This he did at Fryeburg 
in Maine, borrowing a coj^y of Blackstone's Commenta- 
ries, which he was too poor to buy." And what did he 
do all this for ? this man whom Theodore Parker accuses 
of having, in after years, committed the vilest crimes for 
money to expend in sensuality. Was it to buy oysters 
and champaigne ? No ; as Parker himself says, " he used 
the money thus severely earned to help his older brother 
Ezekiel — Black Zeke, as he was called — to college." 
Verily the child is the fiither of the man. 

The reviewer confesses that, albeit, unused to the melt- 
ing mood, when he first read the simple but affecting 
statement of those early struggles and their noble object, 
that tears ran down his face, and if he had reverenced 
the mio'htv orator and statesman, he loved the brave self- 
sacrificing youth, and felt a pride he had never known 
before in his name and his fiime, and now that feeling 
impels liim to the work of defending his memory. Thank 
God ! there -needs no other book Init this very Discourse 
as a text-book, to defend him from, and out of the mouth 
of Theodore Parker, shall he himself be condennied, and 
Daniel Webster vindicated. 

It is not pretended that ho was faultless. lie had his 
frailties — they make us love him all the more. If he 



71 

had been as perfect in morals as lie was gigantic in intel- 
lect he would have been as a god, and while we rever- 
enced we should not have loved him, for there would 
have been no sympathy between us. lUit that l);niicl 
Webster was even suggestive of the demon described in 
this Discourse, is utterly denied, and hissed back into the 
ears, and liurled back into the teeth and down the throat 
to the bottom of the heart, of the " whited sepulchre " 
from which it emanated. Nay, more, one single sabbath 
morning's occupancy of the New Music Hall in Boston, 
to stand up calmly, and sleekly, and plausibly, with the 
fruit of a week's labor in manuscript on the desk, and 
from it scatter religious affectations to excite the audible 
laughter and applause of the multitude, is worse, and 
" more to be condemned " in " Heaven's High Chancery " 
than all the errers Daniel Webster's human frailty ever 
led him to commit ; and there is a righteous retribution 
in store for him that is guilty of it, for, although he now 
thinks that he has 

" Enfeoff'd himself to popularity," 

he will, before many years, be 

- " But as the cuckoo is in June, 



Heard, not regarded." 

Out of his own mouth shall Webster be vindicated. 
Take this instance. He says, "No man managed the 
elements of his argument with more practical effect. 
Perhaps he did this better when contending for a wrong 
than when battling for the right. His most ingenious 
arguments are pleas for injustice." That is, in some case 
connected witli slaver}^, as his foot-note shows. Now. will 
anybody that knows any thing of human nature, pre- 
tend that it is a likely case, that Daniel Webster plead 
better for what he knew was wrong than for what he 
felt to be right ? 



72 

He of all other men could not do it. His great force 
lay in a conviction, that what he said was true, and he 
never fliiled to carry that conviction to his hearer, as 
Parker himself confesses. In this firm confidence in his 
own view of the case lay full as much of his mighty 
power, as in his clear statement, logical inference, his apt 
illustration, and his comprehensive grouping ; and it was 
this complete sincerity that gave such terrific force to his 
invective. 

Read Parker's own description of him when in one of 
his sublime efforts. He says : " When he spoke he was a 
grand spectacle. His noble form so dignified and mascu- 
line, his massive head, the mighty brow, Olympian in its 
majest}^, the deep, dark ej-c which, like a lion's, seemed 
fixed on objects far off, looking beyond what lay in easy 
range ; the mouth, so full of strength and determina- 
tion, — these all became the instruments of such elo- 
quence as few men ever hear. He magnetized men by 
his presence ; he subdued them more by his will than by 
his arguments." So says Parker, and we all l^now it to 
be true. Now just for a moment imagine this man, Dan- 
iel Webster, standing up in the Senate chamber of those 
United States he loved so well, and li/iug^ as deliberately 
as Parker accuses him of, — aye, as deliberately as I 
believe before God this same Theodore Parker, in his 
sleek way, was lying on the holy Sabbath morning next 
succeeding the memorable day of Daniel Webster's death, 
to amuse " The Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society in 
Boston." We know it was not so by our knowledge of 
the man, and we know \ ou, Mr. Parker, too well to re- 
ceive it froni 3'ou as any thing more than one of the 
miserable moral affectations, with which your whole be- 
ing is penetrated, permeated, and pervaded. No unpre- 
judiced mind can. critically examine this j)crfon}iauce, — 



73 



this manufacture, — this mere fadilion of yours, witliout 
seeing in it plenty of evidence that it i.s the oUspring of 
a vain heart and a prostituted intellect. AVliy, the very 
figures of speech belie you if it is not so. But it is ; even 
your onm imagination plays you false, treacherously letting 
out the secrets of your heart ; and your misbegotten 
metaphors are like so many unnatural griffins, half bird, 
half beast, to suit the distortions of ^^our moral nature. 
Take this advice — never, as you value your popularity, 
(I adjure you by '^'0\xx imndpal delbj,) venture on a figure 
of speech again ; for as true as you do, the conception 
will be but a representative form of some moral mon- 
strosity, begotten by some hitherto half concealed iniqui- 
tous propensit}-. What else are those monstrous meta- 
phors, ofispring as they are of an unnatural intellect 
hybridating with some vile, selfish passion, but the dis- 
gusting evidence that Nature herself, much as she is said 
to abhor a vacuum, abhors you even more, and disowning, 
disinheriting you, lets 3^our intended place in her king- 
dom go empty, turning you out into that Milton's 
" Limbo " of the fancy where gorgons grin and phantoms 
flit in horrid imitation of the realities they simulate. 

But it is to be hoped that you will not continue thus 
forever. Perhaps ere long, awakened to a sense of your 
inverted condition by the perusal of this review, you will 
endeavor to exorcise the demons of vanity and affecta- 
tion that possess you, and hereafter struggle for the pro- 
motion of truth and righteousness as intensely as you 
hitherto have struo-crled for distinguishment and notori- 
ety. If you do, there is no one who will welcome you 
into the ranks of the army of truth more sincerely and 
cordially, than your real friend the reviewer, who has en- 
deavored to harrow up your feelings only that he may 
the more effectually'- sow in them the seeds of truth, that 
may grow up and '* bring forth the fruits of good living." 

7 



74 

AVeb.ster was eminently a candid man ; always in ear- 
nest — sometimes terrihl// in earnest — but alwaj giving 
his honest view of the svibject under consideration, Ilis 
feeling was intense, and his great heart sometimes went 
off in a rapid trip-hammer beat that stunned for a time 
the loud voice of reason in the workshop of his brain, 
but even then his forgings were no forgery. There was 
the stamp of sincerity upon them, liead, for illustration, 
the extract from his Plymouth Oration, quoted on the 
forty-ninth and fiftieth pages of " the Discourse." 

This extract shows a sentiment of no ordinary strength 
and depth, and we doubt not that on the 7th of March, 
1850, that sentiment was there alive and breathing. But 
was not the sentiment of jDaternal love glowing and burn- 
ing in the heart of Brutus, when he gave his two s^ns 
np to the axe of the lictor in obedience to a law more 
mighty in its claims than that of protection to the 
'• children of his loins;' namely, the good of that country 
of which he was a responsible ruler? 

But Parker's phihmthropists know Dothing of this 
noble phase of virtue. Bestridden by one idea ; wed- 
ded to a single sentiment; all the manly marrow, nay 
the very backbone itself of firm, unwavering, heroic phi- 
lanthropy melted and fretted out of them b}' the fierce 
fever of fanaticism and an ill-conditioned peevishness of 
pity, they spend their breath, and dry up their moisture 
in sighs and tears over a few fugitive slaves, and, if they 
could by no other means contrive to save them from the 
law. tliey would even set lire to the temple of liberty 
itself, and, for the safety of a dozen negroes, blast the 
weliare of a continent for aues. 

()ut u{)(iii such insane tom-foolery of compassion. It 
is high time that such philanthropic mountebanks were 
hissed out of the company of men of common sense. 
But even now a prophetic feeling assures us that their 



^5 

silly race is almost run, their ravings and "' vain bal)- 
blings" almost over, and soon tliej will either slip silently 
away into a welcome obscurity, or turn their envious 
claws upon each other, and we shall wake up one of these 
mornings and find nothing left of them but the talc. 

On pages 26 and 27 we find the following quotation 
from Webster's first Bunker Hill oration. See how the 
warm heart's blood of the patriot colors and vivifies 
the glowing picture. 

" Let our conceptions be enlarged to the circle of our 
duties. Let us extend our ideas over the whole vast field 
in which we are called to act. Let our object be, our 

COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY. 

And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself be- 
come a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression 
and terror, but of wisdom, of peace, and of liberty, upon 
wdiich the world may gaze with admiration forever." 

How the great soul of the man speaks out in this tin ill- 
ino- frao-ment. Even if this M-as all that should survive 
to future generations, it would as surely give a clue to 
the character of Daniel Webster, as the single section of 
bone in the hands, and under the microscope of Cuvier, 
enabled that great naturalist to describe the animal to 
whom it belonged when living. " F:v pcde Ilercukm:' 

How apposite this exhortation " not to the wish, but to 
the want" of Theodore Parker and his models. "Let 
their conceptions be enlarged to the circle of t/ieir duties." 
Let their object no longer be the negroes, the whole of 
the negroes, and nothing but the negroes; " but let them 
extend their ideas over the whole of the vast (ield hi 
which" rational men "are called upon to act," and govern 
themselves accordino^lv. 

The sentiment of patriotism was the grand centre, 
next to God, around which all the other sentiments of 
Webster's being revolved, and this is the grand master- 



76 

key to his cliaracter and actions. Vriien drawn aside in 
the moments of a temporary weakness, if such there 
were, from the innnediate sphere of his country's attrac- 
tion, even then he could have said with all sincerity, 

Still am I true to thee ; my transient error 
Is ])ut " the needle's," ■which doth often turn 
To less attractions, vliioh, though weak, are nearer 
Than its loved star, that doth in heaven burn. 

He was nurtured in the love of his country by his 
noble father, who helped to fight the battles of that 
country's independence, and even in childhood that senti- 
ment assumed a definite form, appearing visibly in his 
earliest productions, " growing with his growth, and 
strengthening Avith his strength," prompting the lofty 
sentences that fell from his tongue on Bunker Hill, on 
Plymouth Rock, and in Faneuil llall : dictating the long 
ago historical reply to Ilayne, and being, in the course 
of his eloquent life, never more strikingly powerful than 
on that memorable March 7th, 1850, when that sentiment, 
like Aaron's rod, in swallowing up all rival sentiuients, 
demonstrated its undoubted superiority. He loved his 
country better than any party; he loved the Vnion better 
than he loved Massachusetts; he regarded the well-being 
of tin entire nation more than the prejudices of the 
pseudo-philanthropist : he valued Jusiicc more than he 
yi\\\\Q(\ free-soil : and for this it was, that Theodore Parker 
ami (lie masters '-that di> tare him on," would have been 
glad, on that 7th day of ^larcb, 18')(l, and on the lloor of 
the Senate of these United States, to liave concentrated 
all their forces in one fatal blow, and stabbed him where he 
sluod. 



77 



(J II AFTER X. 

THE CONCLUSION. 

" Proce all thhir/g: holdfast tliat K^iuh ts fjoiKL'''' 

We iiftve considered the great ruling principle of 
Daniel Webster's soul. We have seen how, in an honest 
devotion to that vcr\- principle, his course might appar- 
ently vary to the common eye, that sees but the moon 
and the moon's orbit. We come now to consider why it 
was, that, in view of this princii)le, he came at one time 
almost to be an abolitionist, and then finally, when free 
to act, on the Tth of March repudiated the incendiary 
creed of the men of one idea. 

Daniel Webster had so large a head that many thought 
him wanting in capacity of heart; but we have seen, 
that so far from being destitute of heart, when once his 
feelings were enlisted they carried his judgment with 
them, insomuch that he gave away when appealed to 
b}^ the poor, and needy, and suffering, with lavish prodi- 
gality. His very presence indicated the boundless gene- 
rosity of his character. His openness of hand, where 
his sympathies were aroused, long since passed into a 
proverb. The schoolboys told each other tales of his 
unthinking liberality. He should have had the revenues 
of a monarch, that his hand might have remained con- 
tinually open. From this tender sympathy of his with 
suffering, this boundless generosity, came that seeming 
inconsistency upon the slavery question which Theodore 
Farker is continually heralding abroad with his penny 
trumpet. 

This is the true statement ; the tears of some few 

afflicted and suffering black men, fell upon his great beat- 

7=-: 



78 

ing heart, and rose from them in vaporous exhalations to 
obscure his mental sight, and be the means of a prismatic 
resolution of the pure simple light of truth into a halo 
of false philanthropy, that formed a -seeming bow of prom- 
ise to three miUions of apparent unfortunates. Thus the 
clear head of Daniel AYebster -was beclouded bv means of 
his warm heart. 

15 ut even out of the foul mouth of the shameless 
calumniator shall Daniel Weljster be vindicated. We 
quote from the Discourse, page 79. "He loved religious 
forms, and could not see a child baptized without drop- 
ping a tear. Psalms and hymns also brought the woman 
into those great eyes." 

Again Ave quote from the Discourse on the SOtli page. 
"Of the affections he was well provided l)y nature, 
tliough they were little cultivated, — attachable to a few 
who knew and loved him tenderly 3 and, if he hated like 
a giant, he loved also like a king." 

Again, "In his earlier life he was fond of children, 
loved their prattle and their play. Tliey, too, were fond 
of liiiii, came to him as dust to a loadstone, climbed on 
his back, or, when he lay down, lay on his limbs. an<l also 
slept." A beautiful picture. 

"All along the shore men loved him: men in Boston 
loved him to the last. Washington held loving hearts 
that worshipped him." 

The point to Ijc established is this, he was easily carried 
away by his sympathies and friendships. This point 
l)eing made plain, the next thing is to show Avhat bearing 
those traits had on his course in relation to slavery. 

The anti-slavery sentiment had begun to manifest itself 
in New England as long ago as 1810, when the Missouri 
compromise Avas in agitation. ^\\\ Webster Avas then 
comparatively young; In- liad devoted his mind to his 
profession, not having at that time been so much of a 



79 

politiciiin as a lawyer; liis opinions of course had not 
been fully formed. We have seen how accessible he must 
have been to all the inlluences of times, places, occasions, 
friends, public sentiment, etc. Massachusetts, always a 
little inclined to the pharisaic idea that she was a " little 
holier than" her sister States, having abolished slavery in 
her own territory, from motives however, that were not 
those of entire \nimingled philanthropy, now loolving at 
the subject no longer in the concrete but in the abstract, 
began to think and to say" in substance, "how very unjust 
it is to hold men in bondage." The sentiment, as a sen- 
timent merely — not subjected to the test of impartial 
reason in a general view of all the circumstances of the 
case, in the course of time became chronic — constitutional 
as it were, and Daniel Webster, sympathizing with the 
people whom he loved, and who loved him, inhaled the 
sentiment unconsciously, without any direct, particular, 
and systematic investigation. 

It is v>'orthy of remark, however, that Daniel Webster 
alivays foUotvcd — never led in this anti-slavery sentiment, 
and what of action it gave rise to. 

Years rolled on — the chronic sentiment beoran to take 
an acute form — it broke out as an epidemic, with erup- 
tive tendencies — it raged through city and country — a 
great many people '•' had it." In some it began to assume 
a malignant type, accompanied by a virulent " breaking 
out " about the lips, that was very trouljlesome and anno}'- 
ing to the friends of the patients. In such cases it was 
thought, however, that it was not very deep-seated — 
that in fact it was really only '• skin deep." It is need- 
less to say that Daniel Webster never had it in this 
form, either naturally, malariousl}^, epidemically, or con- 
tagiousl}'. 

Years went on. In its malio-nant form it had come to be 
considered a sort of leprosy of the mind, foul and incurable; 



80 

and its victims, glorying in it as the Alpine Swiss in the 
monstrous_^o//;r, were very generally shunned as loathsome 
by the great niajorit}' who were free from it; but all the 
while it was workini!; secretly in the blood of multitudes, 
tainting even that of Webster, and affecting his moral 
and mental perceptions finally to such a degree that he 
could see no " powder-post " planks in the Buflalo Plat- 
form. B;it to drop this metaphor before it begins to 
" blossom " out, all this does not presuppose any delib- 
erate and settled intention on the part of Massachusetts 
men, and Daniel Webster with them, to act unjustly by 
the southern portion of the Federal Union. It was a sen- 
timent — no more. Sometimes it broke out on " the body 
politic" in the form of legislative resolutions, which, how- 
ever, we very much doubt were fully subscribed to l)y 
the people. On the vrhole, it was increasing in power and 
prevalence. Finally, a thing was done by the legislature 
of questionable prudence, and unfortunate results. They 
sent a talented, noble-hearted, venerable man, one of whom 
the Connnonwealth was proud, on an imprudent errand 
to Charleston, South Carolina, where he and his lovely 
and accomplished daughter, were shamefully treated. It 
is of no use to try to disguise this matter. It was imper- 
tinence on one side, and nngentlemanliness on the other; 
qualities neither of them natural to either of those States 
when ill their normal condition. This came near pro- 
ducinii; a crisis, but on the whole the result was irood. 
Men heu'an to look and see how fir it was necessary and 
proper to intermeddle with each other, and the great 
majority of our people began to take a more connnon 
sense view of the matter, lint still the (/rand i'ssucs had 
never been fully and fiirly inyestii»:ated. 

Thus then stood the case; Massachusetts, and, influ- 
enced by her, Daniel Webster, had for a long time been 
thinking that slavery must perforce be an unqualified 



81 

wrong, an absolute sin, an indubitable wickedness, because 
a great many said so, and sonic few railed outriglit. and 
they did not even so ninch as give the subject the 
common courtesy of an investigation, any more than 
Theodore Parker and political philosophers of his moral 
kidney and mental calibre would do it now, to-mor- 
row, or next week, if Ave sliould modestly request it of 
them. 

Thus stood matters previous to the session of Congress 
of 1849-50. That was a stormy winter — a memorable 
winter. It is in vain to deny that it was a danr/crous 
winter. The ship of the Union felt the storm in every 
creaking timber. •■ Men's hearts" ever}' where began "to 
fail them for fear." Vainly does Theodore Parker quote 
the price of stocks to show that there was no danger. It 
is no criterion in this matter. No one pretended that the 
danger was innnediate, innninent, momentarily pressing. 
The ship was in a storm, but it was a stout, staunch fab- 
ric, bound together with mighty bands. It was able to 
bea'r the blast and breast the billows, and even if the 
elements had been destined to overcome it, they could 
not have done it on the high seas; they must have 
driven it full many a league upon the far lee-shore, be- 
fore it would strike the rocks and go to pieces. This 
was well known hy the Ijoard of brokers in Wall street. 
Think you they were such fools as to sacrifice their pres- 
ent interest to a future danger, however formidable? 
Thej' knew they should have warning l^efore the muti- 
nous crew had let the vessel get too near the rocks for 
salvation to be possible. This whole stock argument of 
Theodore Parker's is all moonshine. It is of a piece 
with various other shallownesses of the Discourse. The 
fact is, he has so long been living in one spot, revolving 
one set of ideas, feeding out speckled and black beans to 
a docile flock, that he knows no better than to think that 



82 

Massachusetts is the Union, that Boston is Massachusetts, 
that '-The Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society" is 
Boston, and, to hring the matter to its essence, Theodore 
Parker is the Twenty-Eidith Contrressional Society, and 
consequent!}-, — reasoning hack again, — he himself is the 
whole United States of North America; and as /ic felt 
no fear of -what indeed he would he glad to bring about, 
he said, and, in his Ijlind egotism, doubtless felt, that there 
"was no danscer to the Union durinsx the winter referred 
to above. 

But there ?':((S danger — very great danger — and if 
this oysterlike egotist would go out of his shell of self- 
conceit — if he would venture abroad, as other men do, 
and air his opinions south of "Mason and Dixon's line," 
he would return to Boston a wiser, and perhaps a better 
man. We advise him to o-o. 

There ivas danger. The man who denies it knows no- 
thino; of human nature — nothino; of the feehns-s of 
southern men on this subject. They difler from northern 
men from the nature of their blood and education. Tliey 
can less easily brook injustice. They /cjiow they are not 
the vile, selfish villains, thieves, robbers, murderers, that 
Parker would needs have them to be. The}' know that 
they are as truly virtuous, in all the relations of life in 
which Providence has cast their lot, as any similar num- 
ber of people under the sun ; and they know that north- 
ern aljolitionism of the Parker stripe is only a j)/ie)io)U( iial 
fonn of iiitcnsijicd selfishness, and they v:ere, and are deter- 
mined to bear no more tom-foolerv. Go there. Mr. Parker, 
by all uiauner of means. It will do you «rood ; for you 
know no more at present about this Union, and the vast 
probK'iii of its destiny under God's Providence, than the 
worm in the timber of the ship does of navigation. You 
are here in Boston, borinu: like that worm to destroy the 
timber, and sink the ship. You come under the category 



83 

of vermin. So fur from being useful, you. arc pernicious. 
Your efforts tire destructive. 

It was truly fortunate for America that Daniel "Web- 
ster lived long enough to put the great question before 
the country in its true light. Good men and true, who 
could not see, by reason of prejudice, now know that this 
matter has been made plain, and it is a great relief to the 
heart of an honest man to be stayed on clear and immu- 
table truth. 

But we will own that it ivas unfortunate — it is unfor- 
tunate for the people of the South that they did not 
honor themselves by putting the Defender of the Consti- 
tution in the presidential chair. They ought to have 
done it. That one crowning act would have bound this 
great Union together forever. It would have elevated 
them, and the whole of us, in the eyes of each other, and 
in the eyes of the world. As it is, both they and we 
must be content to bear the fiendlike sneers of this "min- 
isicr" in relation to that suljject as best we can. They 
are all that bear the show of justice in the whole Dis- 
course; and, although they reveal the devil-like disposi- 
tion of their author, we feel constrained to let them 
alone — they are severe, but they are just — the world 
sees it, posterit}^ will alfn-m it, the South must feel it. 
AVe shall not undertake to dispute it. 

But to proceed with the subject. There was danger — 
actual dano-er — serious dansrer — increasin"; dano;cr to 
the Union of these States in the crisis of 1850. All saw 
that this crisis was in the hands of one man. All parties 
saw it — all parties acknowledged it. Efforts were made, 
eflbrts as strenuous as the case was weighty, to enlist the 
one great name and fame and giant reason on the side 
of one, and on the side of the other. Then came the 
mighty struggle in the heart of Daniel Webster. He 
hesitated — he wavered. Momentous interests were at 



84 

stake. The fiite of millions and millions of "millions yet 
to be" liuno- on the turninfr of his hand. '• Lony; time in 
even scale the battle hung." This Avay and that way 
swayed the miLdit\' mao-nct. now for the first time free 
from local causes of disturbance, which had drawn it 
down and to one side so lonu' ; and where did it settle at 
last? Towards what quarter of the heavens did it stand 
directed? Not to iliU quarter nor to Had quarter — 
neither east nor west, north nor south. It ro.->e ahovc the 
common horizontal. It stood still ; and Avhen men gazed 
up into the sky, sighting its elevated range, they saw 
that, true to its original attraction, it had sought and 
found no wi(jlc star, but the GllA^'D constellation of the 
Union of the United States of America, thenceforth to 
know no sign of wavering! 

It stood there on the Ttli dav of March, 1S50 — as it 
stood there on Bunker Hill, and on Plymouth Rock, and 
in Faneuil Hall, and thenceforward it never swerved from 
its high truth, until a mighty electric thrill of pain darted 
along the nation's nerves and told that Webster was no 
more ! 

The decision was made. The i^iant burst the thousand 
Lilliputian ties that had bound him so exclusively to 
northern ground. He rose with the severed threads still 
liani:;ing thieklv about him, and rcLj-ardless alike of "the 
Little-endians '" and •' Big-endians/' he went on his mighty 
wav. 

Having made up his mintl, Mr. "Webster was not one to 
hesitate, or falter, or relent from his high resolve. He 
went to his work with a settled purpose, a nol»le energy, 
a firm reliance upon the ground he stood on. Like some 
huge giant, llicii he rose, looked about him, and took the 
lay and bearings of the land. Before him in the distance 
ro.se an eminence on Avhicli even Ihe coiiunou eve could 
see things as he saw them. With stalwart arm, and tren- 



85 

clitint axo, dealing terrific blows, he hewed his mighty 
way through the obstructing forest of opinions, breaking 
down with the axe-head the crags of opposition, feUing 
difficulties, uprooting prejudices, building a causeway 
along the quaking bogs of fear, and bridging over the 
deep " sloughs of despond," turning aside the torrent of 
abuse to make its bed a pathway, until at last, with labor- 
ing breath, and beaded brow, but a triumphant smile, he 
stood upon the summit, beckoning up the Nation! 

For a time men wavered, but as the bolder few went np, 
and shouted to their fellows, soon the multitude began to 
move, and pour, and throng along the path, and struggle 
to* the summit; and the giant wiped away the great sweat 
of labor from his brow, shouldered his axe, and went 
home to his house and family by the seaside to refresh 
himself 

But where was Theodore Parker all this time? He? 
v>here was he ? Why he was using some of the brush, 
which the giant had cut down, to keep his abolition-pot 
boiling, and, while he kept his face in the steam that rose 
from it, he kept wiping his colored spectacles, and won- 
dering that they should be so foolish as to try to ascend 
that hill ] for his part he could not see any pathway; and, 
when people came and urged the matter on him, he grew 
angry, and flung the hot scum of the pot in their faces. 

It will not be pretended that Daniel Webster was not 
influenced by southern men in this matter. Undoubtedly 
he was, and it is not at all to his discredit. lie had been 
too completely under the influence of the North, and it 
was needful that the equilibrium be restored, or rather 
that one be created. How could he see this great ques- 
tion in its true light, in all its bearings, while sectional 
sentiment was drawing him aside ? It would have been 
almost a moral impossibility for Daniel Webster to have 
seen that matter clearly if southern men had not thronged 

8 



86 



and crowded around him, and imbued liim to some small 
extent with their own feelings. No doubt he thought of 
the presidency, and pray tell us why should he not? 
That he was ambitious is true ; his whole course shows 
it J but we have yet to learn that his ambition led him to 
dishonor. That his career should end in the presidential 
chair was as natural as that the cap-stone of the monu- 
ment on Bunker Hill should be upon the top, and not 
stop half way down. It rests there because it belongs 
there. Daniel Webster just as truly belonged in the su- 
preme executive chair of these United States ; and a uni- 
versal acclamation would have proclaimed the approba- 
tion of a world, if we had done a thing so manifestly just, 
and wise, and prudent, and appropriate as to have placed 
him there. Posterity will miss him from the list of presi- 
dents, and wonder at the strange anomaly. History, that 
has already embodied his reply to Ilayne, will carry this 
anomaly down to remotest times, and the wonder will in- 
crease with the increasing ages at our neglect to do a 
thing so natural, and sequential, and our posterity will 
half reproach our memory for robbing them of the 
honor of referring, proudly, to the era, when "Webster, 
having allayed an angry quarrel, presided over the united 
and reconciled nation. 

Webster knew all this. He saw that this consumma- 
tion was wanting to the historic fulness of his career — 
that not to place him in the presidential chair would be 
in some sort to libel him to posterity. 

But his soul was not contaminated by this feeling as a 
temptation from the paths of honor. Why, the very 
speech of the seventh of ?.larch itself is a most palpable 
contradiction of such an accusation. Who dares attack 
the rcasoninr/ of that speech? Does Theodore Parker? 
We beg pardon for mentioning his name so often — it 
seemed to be necessary. There is the speech ; arc its 



87 

positions overthrown by any one ? Did they not carry 
conviction ? Is not truth truth, and are they not still 
all open to assault ? He himself says in this Discourse, 
"I think not a hundred prominent men in all New Eng- 
land acceded to the speech. But such was the pov\'er of 
that gigantic intellect, that, eighteen days after his speech, 
nine hundred and eighty-seven men of Boston sent him 
a letter, telling him that he had pointed out the path of 
duty, convinced the conscience of a nation;" and they 
expressed to him their " entire concurrence in the senti- 
ments of that speech," and their "heartfelt thanks for the 
inestimable aid it afibrded to the preservation of the 
Union." 

Yeriiy, '^Jlaf/uus est Veritas, ct prcvalcbitr 

Let those who attack Daniel Webster's honesty do it 
over the ruins of that argument or not at all. It stands 
between his reputation and his enemies. Let them come 
on, " and damned be he that first cries hold, enough ! " 

Thus, finally, not to enter into the particulars of the 
facts, for this review has to do specially with the philoso- 
phy, rather than the mere statistics, of the subject ; thus, 
finally, the investigation w'as, by concurrent circum- 
stances, and a threatened crisis, actually forced upon un- 
willing minds, and thus it was that Daniel Webster, fore- 
most now, leadhujj not following, as w^as his proper place 
in this case where reason, wot feeling, was to rule the hour, 
now, for the first time, set seriously about a calm, dispas- 
sionate, comprehensive, deep-searching, thorough-going, 
investiiration. 

This investigation resulted according to immutable 
principles in the adoption, not from mere impression, but 
entire conviction of the views embodied in the speech of 
March 7th, 18-30, in which, in view of all the circum- 
stances, all the consequences for time and for eternity, to 
this nation, to the African himself, to the great family of 



S8 

mankind, he advocated and made plain, the dut}' of Amer- 
icans to pass and carry out the fugitive slave law, and 
the accompanying measures. Look at this matter calmly, 
ye men of Massachusetts, you who are wont to be con- 
sidered by the world as " calcuki/iuf/ Yankees-," was he, 
this man Daniel Webster, right or wrong, honest or dis- 
honest — just and disinterested, or partial and mercenary 
in this matter ? Parker says he made that speech againd 
his conscience for a consideration, but was it against his rea- 
son? Tell us that. All along through this Discourse of 
one hundred and eight pages he labors to gain, first, your 
prejudices, next, your imagination, finally, your judgment. 
You who have ever at any former period loved and re- 
vered Daniel Webster, I appeal to jjou, by the memory of 
the past, by the justice of your own souls, by the judg- 
ment by which you would yourselves be judged, has this 
man whom you once regarded with all the personal affec- 
tion that a son gives to his father, has he done the foul and 
nameless deed ; nameless, but faintly shadowed forth in 
the horrid epithet of parricide — has he betrayed his 
country's honor and his own soul to eternal, danming 
shame ? Bethink 3^ou, he is dead ; no more shall we be- 
hold that majestic form, or stand in that august presence. 
"He lies full low." Shall his grave be sacred to all that 
is o:reat and worthv, or shall it be accursed ? Shall it be 
green with the laurels of honor, or shall even the grass 
refuse to grow upon it. as the grave of a murderer? He 
loved us — no one doubts that — he entered jMassachu- 
setts ever with arms wide open. He came home to die 
upon her bosom. Sa}-, ye who Jiave once loved him, 
Avill ye help to desecrate his grave ? Methinks I hear 
the solemn, fervent answer, rising in murmurs on the 
shore, mingled with the Ijoomino; of the waves of the 
ocean, saying, never ! Onward it travels west, and from 
tlio hills of Berkshire echoes never! All America takes 



so 

np the solemn cry, and answers never! never ! and onward 
and still onward, down the still coming ages, peals the 
promise, never, never, never ! 

Theodore Parker " has done what he could," and the 
reviewer has done what /le could. Would to God it had 
been more and better in so dear a cause. If the task is 
not well done, the vrill must be taken for the deed. If 
there is "any lack of needful severity," we are most 
heartily sorry for it. If the culprit has not been reached 
effectually, it was because the lash was not long enough, 
nor this right arm strong enough. 

As for him to whose manes we dedicate this effort, we 
do not fear to trust his reputation to the current of your 
feelings and the tide of time. 

He will not be forgotten. In person he was majestic. 
In intellect titanic. In action god-like. His voice was 
the soncr; of the mountain torrent. The current of his 
eloquence a mighty river. 

He has passed out of sight, but not out of mind.. 
Never again will his simple presence rouse to a wild and 
irrepressible enthusiasm the gazing throng; but they will 
not, they cannot forget him. In future years he will be 
descanted on in history. In the lapse of time he will 
" live in song and story." Nay, more, 

Even in the ages when tlic world is old, 
Awestruck posterity shall still behold 
The footprints of his earthly march sublime, 
Gigantic on the ancient shores of time ; 
And, measuring each vestige, deep and vast, 
Eeview, amazed, the dim receding past. 
And cry, as back they strain their wondering gaze, 
" Lo, brothers, there were giants in those days !"' 



I 



REVIEW 



OF 



"A DISCOURSE OCCASIONED BY TUB DEATH OF DANIEL WEBSTER, PREACHED AT 

THE MELODEON ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1S52, BY THEODORE PARKER, 

MINISTER OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGUKGATIONAL 

SOCIETY IN BOSTON." 



BY 



"JUNIUS AMERICANUS." 



" He that hideth hatred %vith lying lips, and that uttcreth slander, is-a fool." — PaovEaBS, x. 13. 

" Answer a/oo/ according to his folly, lest he he wise in his own conceit." — xivi. 5. 

" I'll prove it on his hody." — Suakespeaeb. 



BOSTON AlND CAMBRIDGE: 

jamp:s munroe and company 

1853. 






b;ndef' 

1903 



